PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) -
A 3-year-old girl's screams alerted her mother when the child was hugged by a stranger outside the family's home in the Woodstock neighborhood of southeast Portland on Thursday.
The girl's mother told police that her daughter was walking into her yard from her grandmother's house next door when the child screamed "Mommy! Stranger!" at least twice.
The mom went outside and saw a woman had put her arms around her daughter, so the mother yelled at the stranger to get away, police said. The woman walked away, got into a car and was driven away by an unknown man.
Because the mother was able to provide license plate information, police searched the area and found it at Southeast 19th Avenue and Woodward Street. They took the 33-year-old suspect into custody and began interviewing her.
Police said they do not believe the suspect was intending to harm or abduct the child. However, officers took her to a local hospital for a mental health evaluation.
Detectives and members of the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office plan to talk more about the case Friday.
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