St. Paul police: Man swiped cell phone from 9-year-old girl

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) - St. Paul police are asking for the public’s help in identifying a man who stole a cell phone out of the hands of a nine-year-old girl on Tuesday afternoon.

The police department said on Facebook the girl was waiting for her sister's bus near the intersection of Grotto Street and Edmund Avenue around 3:30 p.m. when the robbery occurred. After snatching the phone, the suspect then allegedly taunted the victim, saying "Ha ha I got your cell phone." 

The victim's mother, Latoya Chestnut, says her daughter was terrified after the incident.

"She was scared," Chestnut told Fox 9. "She didn't want to go to school the next day. She said her stomach was hurting, but I knew she was just afraid of going to school cause of what had happened to her she was just staring up into space the whole night like she was very, very scared."

Surveillance video captured the whole incident on tape. Anyone with information on the suspect is asked to call the St. Paul Police Department at 651-266-5516.