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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31 responses so far ↓
1
Peeperann
May 15, 2008 at 9:25 am -Yay Grandma!! OMG, this is so scary! It really does make you think about what he’s done in the past. And WTH?! They found him at a golf course with his pants undone?!! Sick bastard. And he told her “not to throw up”? This whole story makes me want to throw up!! Thank God her grandma was not scared and just got really pissed off and chased him down the stairs, a very lucky ending……..
2
Morbid
May 15, 2008 at 9:40 am -Video added, my Queen.
3
impqueen
May 15, 2008 at 9:47 am -Thanks, you!
He’s a scary kid. Also, he’s a ringer for a young Scott Peterson. Just sayin’.
4
solange822001
May 15, 2008 at 9:55 am -This has been all over the local news. The family is moving out of the area because of this, they are terrified. The poor little girl said she thought it was someone who knew her mom that was carrying her out, so she tried to go back to sleep. His father is the owner of some apartments or something
5
Tricia
May 15, 2008 at 9:57 am -the whole ‘dont throw up” thing leaves me thinking that a child has thrown up on him before while he was raping him/her.
that is one lucky little girl.
high 5 gramma!!
6
WryBread
May 15, 2008 at 10:27 am -I’d give anything to know the particular way in which this creep developed this idea. How do these people get these weird sick fascinations — “Oh, I think I’ll just carry a kid out of her home during the night.” Why did he choose that little girl? Is she a type he is fixated on?
I guess the basic question is how some people’s sexuality gets so fundamentally screwed up. I’m glad this kid is 18 so there’s no question of juvenile “justice” for him.
That poor little girl will be scared forever. Not just because of what happened, but because she made a choice and it was the wrong one. That will haunt her, I’m afraid.
7
SqueakyClean
May 15, 2008 at 11:19 am -Good going, grams! Dear God, what if she’d just thought, ‘Oh, she probably got up to use the restroom’ and rolled over and went back to sleep??? That is scary as HELL.
I hope he gets a nice long prison sentence, as his intentions were clear. Creepy scumbucket.
8
Unamused Cat
May 15, 2008 at 12:39 pm -This guy is bad news. I hope they don’t let him off with just a slap on the wrist. He will do it again.
9
rumpilstiltskin
May 15, 2008 at 12:46 pm -Grandma should be glad he didn’t kill her or at least stab her before trying to take the kid.
10
yogaluvr
May 15, 2008 at 12:49 pm -This is one of the scariest stories I’ve ever read on DD. I’m frightened to the core of my being by this kind of occurrence.
Several years ago I believe I almost lost my son to a kidnapper / pedophile while we were at a bookstore. It was late and my husband and I had taken our son (9 or so at the time) as a treat while his brother was away at camp. While in the past we had permitted our kids to hang around the kids’ section of this store (a large chain) by themselves because there were always adult salespeople in the area, this time my husband and I had nothing in particular we wanted to look at and it was kind of “bonding time”, so we were next to him the whole time. But that didn’t deter one particular man (the only other person in the kids’ section) from lurking nearby.
I got this queasy feeling in my stomach at one point, but dismissed it at first, thinking I was being paranoid. After several minutes though, I decided to quietly indicate my concern to my husband who replied that he’d noticed the man, too. We’d go down an aisle and the man would “magically” appear on the opposite side or in the same aisle, pretending to look at a book and putting it back, but all the while watching my son. Finally, my son chose a book and we left the area. The man followed. I veered off in one direction to advise a manager of my concern, while my husband continued toward the registers. My son decided to dart in the opposite direction (he’d been walking next to my husband, completely unaware of the concern we had), to look at something on a shelf near the front of the store. My husband immediately noticed my son walking away and followed him, but the man behind us beat him to it and was behind my son by about 3 steps. After shouting my son’s name to get his attention, the man changed direction and ran out the front door. By then, I’d grabbed a store employee and he and my husband followed the man out of the store thinking they could at least get a license plate number or make / color of vehicle he jumped into, but he didn’t get into a car. He ran around the corner of the store into the woods that surround this particular development. He disappeared into the dark.
I will never forget the experience or the fact that the man was wearing a small, child-size backpack that was obviously empty except for something very heavy at the bottom, weighing the backpack down. I have no idea, of course, what was in the backpack, but I can imagine. I sobbed quietly the whole ride home and immediately ran to the bathroom when we walked in our own front door, so I could vomit.
While nothing happened, I know it was going to. Had we left our son to browse the area on his own, as we had done before (although his older siblings had always been with him), I know my son would have been gone. I knew it that night and I know it now. It was in my gut. I could feel it. But I didn’t have to WATCH it happen, and therein lies the blessing for my family.
This family, on the other hand, will never be able to get the image of their child / granddaughter being carried away by a knife-wielding stranger out of their heads or hearts. I feel so badly for them and for the little girl.
11
dammitall
May 15, 2008 at 1:45 pm -I’m just glad the sonofabitch is 18, so he’ll be tried as an adult.
12
carol13
May 15, 2008 at 2:07 pm -yogaluvr, I know what you mean. I took my goddaughter to disneyland when she was 6. We were in a gift shop when I noticed a man following a little girl about my goddaughter’s age. He wasn’t following the way a parent would, it was just a strange gut feeling. There were no parents around this girl. I told my mother to take my girl’s hand, and I started following the man. I was pregnant at the time, so I was ferociously maternal. He was hunting this child. I think he was about to go for the grab on her, she was near the door and secluded behind a shelf, when he shot one last look around, and came face to face with an angry prego with claws out. He almost fell backwards and ran like his ass was on fire out of that store. I had never thought about how disneyland would also be an amusement park for pedophiles. After that though, you can bet I looked out twice as hard for the rest of the trip. (I didn’t leave the store until the little girl’s parents came back, about 5 minutes later, she would have been long gone by then.)
13
Harley_Tech
May 15, 2008 at 2:48 pm -I actually feel sorry for this guy. STOP THROWING SHIT AT ME and let me explain….sheeesh!
When he lands in jail and right before his ass beating starts he’s actually going to have to say the words, “I’d have gotten away with it if the girl’s Granny hadn’t stopped me.”
If Bubba can stop laughing long enough, this kid is gonna be a hurtin.
Tomorrow I’ll have a 5′ brush hog out mowing…can I run over this fucker a couple times?….Pleeeeeease?
R
14
Lizard
May 15, 2008 at 2:57 pm -And Bubba’s gonna say, “You got PURTY skin!”
15
SqueakyClean
May 15, 2008 at 3:04 pm -Those are some scary stories, about the bookstore and disneyland. There sure are a lot of sleazeballs out there. A year or two ago, some asshole grabbed a little girl in Albertson’s here… with her dad standing RIGHT THERE! Asshole took off with the little girl, but luckily daddy could run faster, tackled him, and got in a few good punches before the cops got there.
It’s scary as hell out there. How can I ever protect my children enough?
16
Athena
May 15, 2008 at 3:18 pm -“It’s scary as hell out there. How can I ever protect my children enough?”
As stories like this clearly illustrate, you can’t. What you can do, however, is teach your kid to protect themselves. In a situation like that, every kid should know to scream, kick, punch, bite…Whatever they can do to get away or call attention. Could the child get hurt doing this? Sure. But, realistically, if the perp makes it to a secure location with the kid, the kid will just be hurt and then killed.
Way to outline the super-creepiness of this kid, Imp. A clear example of a born sociopath. Of course, with no priors and having not done any real damage to the kid, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was out in 10 or less, having had plenty of time to pick up some tricks of the trade and be back on the street, more lethal than before. That’s scary.
“If Bubba can stop laughing long enough, this kid is gonna be a hurtin.”
I know we’d all like to think that, but honestly? If this kid really is anything like a Bundy or other charismatic sociopaths, he’ll probably get along just fine in prison, making lots of friends quickly and learning how to play the game.
17
thepooh5
May 15, 2008 at 3:39 pm -Now that just sucks Athena, but I know you are more than likely correct. He’ll be just another preditor learning “how to” - only better.
If they EVEN give him 10, it’ll be a surprise. Like you said, no priors and no real damage.
18
impqueen
May 15, 2008 at 3:42 pm -My money says he gets five or less and walks out with time served and supervised probation for awhile. Seriously.
And if I were his probie, i would watch him like a hawk.
19
thepooh5
May 15, 2008 at 3:51 pm -PREDATOR, I meant to say……
20
thepooh5
May 15, 2008 at 3:59 pm -Damn Imp, I thought Athena’s “forecast” was bad - just keep bringin’ the pooh down.
21
Sir Geoff
May 15, 2008 at 4:18 pm -What’s REALLY sick is that his lawyer will say “he’s a good kid who happened to make a bad decision, besides, he got caught, so no harm done. If he was REALLY that bad he could have stabbed the grandma and stole the kid anyway. See, he’s a good kid!” Then some lame-ass judge who lives in a gated-community with bodyguards will decide that this is a good kid who does not threaten society, at least not HIS, society and let the kid go with a slap on the wrist. I pray we never hear from him again!
22
prettyuglyish
May 15, 2008 at 5:08 pm -Good thing they caught this pile of poo when they did. Can you imagine the damage he would have caused within the next 10 years…Hell, within the next 10 minutes!
Note to Florida: Keep on the lookout for this guy around 2013 (and hopefully it will be AT LEAST be that long). You’ll recognize him by his weird peanut-shaped head, but he’ll have over-developed biceps & pecs…and most likely a few swazi tattoos.
23
yogaluvr
May 15, 2008 at 7:52 pm -Impqueen, he TOTALLY looks like Scott Peterson!
Carol13 - good for you! Sounds like you didn’t question your gut for one instant. I did. I thought I was being dramatic and paranoid. But my gut was screaming at me and wouldn’t stop. The fact that he was ballsy enough to lurk right in front of my husband and I just sends chills down my spine. His backpack, though, was what made me vomit. I could only imagine the plans he had for my beautiful son.
So, this Scott Peterson lookalike must have a quite the set of testacles. He walks into a bedroom and takes a child right out of the bed she’s sleeping in with her grandmother. Just like that. Nothing to it.
Think if he’d used his set for good and not evil.
24
April
May 15, 2008 at 8:07 pm -Carol13 - Not only Disney but Chuck E. Cheese also. There was a case (not that long ago) where a dude (here in Cali) groped a little girl that was in line to swap her tickets for prizes. EWWWWWW!!! So sad that places for children become “open season” spots for pervs…
25
Unamused Cat
May 15, 2008 at 8:55 pm -The lawyer of Timothy Schlafer, 18, explained to the judge, “I respectfully request you reduce that bond. This child, Timothy, is an honor student and has a scholarship to FAU and has substantial ties to the community.”
26
SqueakyClean
May 15, 2008 at 9:36 pm -Or plans to tie up a substantial portion of the community.
How do defense lawyers live with themselves???
27
MommyOfMason
May 15, 2008 at 11:25 pm -Just the stories in the comment section are enough to want to barracade myself and my son in our home until he is 25…but it seems even THAT isn’t safe enough. My boyfriend thought I was being over-paranoid because I didn’t want to do things like post a stork outside our house after our son was born…glad I didn’t, as I discovered their is a registered sex offender living ON MY STREET.
Ever since I discovered this website (link to a story led me here, then sat for
hoursdays reading the archives), I’ve been looking at the world differently. There are some SICK FUCKS out there. I wish they would wear name tags or something so I could identify them and stay away. This kid looks so… normal. Good call with the Ted Bundy reference, Athena.28
SqueakyClean
May 15, 2008 at 11:31 pm -That’s exactly why we didn’t post the signs either; even though we got some as gifts. No use advertising to all the freakazoids out there that the most vulnerable person possible was now a member of our household. Lucky for me Mr. Clean is as paranoid as I am.
29
MommyOfMason
May 15, 2008 at 11:38 pm -I think it was right around the time that I saw a news story (or was it a Lifetime Movie?) about a woman being murdered for her fetus that I became extremely aware of my surroundings whenever I would haul my pregnant ass out of the house. Better safe than sorry, I say!
30
mg2
May 15, 2008 at 11:54 pm -I know we are not supposed to live in fear and all, but this sh!t happens everyday (here at DD at least three terrifying stories a day). I hold my kids so close. I am so scared of something happening to them. I am quite paranoid about the people around me. Anytime someone wants to spend time with my kids, my first thought is “Why would someone want to spend time with children that are not their own?” Paranoid, but safe I think.
Anyway about the nametags and stuff. I heard somewhere that they were thinking of printing “Sex Offender” in bright red on driver’s licences. Anybody hear about that?
31
vigilante2008
May 17, 2008 at 5:06 am -Stories like this make me sick. Good thing Grandma was there or this would have turned out very differently. I have a feeling this wasn’t this guy’s first offense of this kind, scary.
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