Metro Man Says His Daughter Was Nearly Abducted At Gas Station

A metro father is warning other parents after he said a stranger nearly abducted his daughter at a gas station.

It happened Sunday evening in Stroud while he and his three children took a restroom break.

Kevin Murphy said his 6-year-old daughter and 12-year-old daughter held hands and went inside the women's restroom at the EZ-Go Phillips 66 station on Interstate 44 since there was no designated family restroom.

However, when he and his 9-year-old son walked out of the men’s restroom, he saw his youngest daughter holding someone else's hand.

“There was a woman walking away with my youngest daughter in her hand and they're walking towards the door,” Murphy said.

The restroom break turned horrifying for the single father.

“I grabbed her hand from the lady and she turned around and I said, ‘What are you doing with my daughter?’ Then, she said, ‘I don't know if she's your daughter,’” Murphy explained.  “My oldest daughter said the woman physically took my daughter away from and pushed her in the stall."

Murphy and the woman exchanged some heated words and he rushed to get the kids safely back to the car.

“The lady started yelling ‘He's kidnapping those kids, he's kidnapping those kids,’ telling me I'm a sex trafficker and just going crazy, yelling obscenities,” Murphy said.

The store manager called the Oklahoma Highway Patrol while other customers gathered around the family.

Murphy’s daughters got in the front seat together, hugging and holding each other, and Murphy said the woman came at them again.

“She opens the door and she says, ‘Honey, do you want to come with me?’ and I physically grabbed her and pushed her way,” Murphy explained.

Murphy said he suddenly heard a man in a blue Ford Ranger pickup yell for the woman and she jumped inside and they took off.

“They peeled out of there with the wheels burning,” Murphy added.

Murphy said it was around 8 p.m. and he could not see the vehicle tag in time.

The couple was gone before an OHP trooper arrived.

The trooper conducted a field interview with Murphy and Murphy said they discussed why a person would act the way the woman did, only to leave before OHP arrived.

“His theory was that ‘You surprised her, you caught her,’ and she had to defuse the situation,” Murphy said.

Murphy said the woman smelled of alcohol and may have been drunk, but he is fully convinced she was trying to take his child.

“If another child got abducted, I don't think I could live with myself for not saying something,” Murphy explained.

Murphy described the woman as about 5 feet 6 inches tall, 150 to 170 pounds with shoulder-length brown hair.

The store would not release the surveillance footage from that night.

If you think you know the couple, call OHP.