
Coral Springs, FL - Timothy Christian Schlafer is one freaky teenager. Schlafer, 18, broke into a Coral Springs home early Wednesday morning and tried to abduct an eleven-year-old girl at knifepoint. Fortunately for the little girl, he woke up the child’s grandmother while carrying the girl out of the house.
It started at 2:00 Wednesday morning. Mary Cimino heard a thump and a rustling noise and woke up. She looked over, but her granddaughter, who was sharing her bedroom, wasn’t in bed. So Cimino got up to see what was going on. What she saw was Tim Schlafer carrying her eleven-year-old granddaughter out of the house. Shocked and angry, Cimino chased him down the stairs of the home, screaming “Put my granddaughter down!”
Schlafer, a senior at Coral Springs High School, complied – but not without copping a feel. He put the child down, but rubbed his hand over her torso while he was at it. Then he ran, leaving a knife stolen from the family’s kitchen on the floor. Mary Cimino called 911 and described Schlafer, who was found soon afterwards at a nearby abandoned golf course. When arrested, Schlafer had his pants unbuttoned and partially unzipped. A condom was found in one of his pockets.
That’s scary stuff when you consider that Tim Schlafer just turned 18 in April. To break into a home and steal a child at knifepoint from a room where an adult is also sleeping is beyond ballsy – it’s brazen. That kind of act says he doesn’t think he’s gonna get caught, and it makes investigators wonder what the hell Tim Schlafer’s been up to right under their noses. Because Schlafer’s only criminal record is a traffic ticket when he was 13 for not wearing a bicycle helmet.
Schlafer looks good on paper. He photographs okay, never been in any trouble. His Myspace is set to private, but even so there’s nothing at all unusual, nothing that stands out. That’s why he’s so scary. This kid could be Ted Bundy. I fully expect a rash of “we never had a clue, he seemed so normal” mail. But Tim Schlafer didn’t know this child or her family – so he must have been watching, unnoticed. For how long?
The little girl told police that Schlafer woke her up and carried her out of the room, shushing her and telling her to be quiet. She said he rubbed her tummy and told her not to throw up. That’s a strange thing to tell a frightened child. Fortunately, the child was not injured. And thank Grandma, or we’d have an abducted child on our news this morning. Police say he entered the home through a sliding glass door that was accidentally left unlocked overnight.
Police think Schlafer may have been involved in other recent home invasions in the same area. Earlier Wednesday, a Coral Springs woman woke up to find a man standing in her house, but he fled. Coincidence, or warmup?
Timothy Christian Schlafer was arrested and charged with armed kidnapping of a child under 13 years of age and armed burglary. As of late Wednesday night, he was being held at the Broward County Jail.
Now with big, juicy video from cbs4.com,
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UPDATE 2-5-2010: A Broward County jury on January 26th convicted Timothy Christian Schlafer, 19, of armed kidnapping and armed burglary with battery. He will be sentenced March 4th
Tags: Abduction, Burglary, Coral Springs, Kidnapping

























