June 8, 2016 (Woerden, Netherlands)

My name is Marloes van den Heuvel, and on June 8^th Hendrick van Asselt tried to kidnap my 13-year-old daughter from the Aldi on Edisonweg in Woerden.

Lotte is a student at Future College and every Wednesday she finished class around 11:30. Just as any other day, she came home, and we ate kibbling. Wednesday is always fish day. After lunch at around 13:00 we went to the supermarket. Because I needed to do the shopping for the week, we went to the Aldi on Edisonweg. 

I took the car; we drove from our house on Leliestraat. We took a left on Korenbloemstraat, left on Industrieweg and then finally another left onto Edisonweg.  The Aldi is on the right-hand side of the road. I pulled into the parking lot and parked near the doors to the shop. 

There are two doors to the shop, one for entering and one for exiting. Next to the entrance are the grocery carts. Lotte was standing next to me, so I asked her to get a cart, and I walked into the store. 

Lotte brought me the cart, and we started our shopping. There is only one path through the shop, and we followed it. 

I noticed a man by the beer; he was about 30 years old and 1 meter 97. He had shoulder length brown hair and a goatee. He was wearing a green shirt, tan shorts, and slippers. At the moment, I didn’t think anything of it. 

I was looking in the bargain bins at backpack; that is when I heard Lotte scream. When I looked up, I saw the man grabbing Lotte and pulling her towards the exit of the shop. I too began yelling. I was screaming for him to let go of my daughter. 

The shop keeper was behind the cash register, he was a young man, maybe 19 I suppose. As there is only one way out of the store, Hendrick must leave the store by way of the cash register. It all happened so fast.

The cashier jumped out from behind the counter and started pulling Lotte towards him. Now both men are fighting over my daughter. I finally reached Lotts and began hitting Hendrick. 

During all of the commotion, someone had called the police. Because as Hendrick let go of Lottes' arm and ran out the door, a police car arrived. The police offer got out of his vehicle and ran towards Hendrick. But I didn’t see what happened here because I was holding on to Lotte who was in a panic.

There was a rip in Lotte’s t-shirt, and bruises on her arms where Hendrick had been grabbing her. He was quite violent in his attack. Lotte said her head was hurting from someone pulling her hair. 

I heard the clerk say “Stop that man, he tried to kidnap this child.”

By the time I looked up, the police officer had Hendrick in the back of his car.  I had never been more afraid in my whole life. 

Everyone knew Hendrick, he had recently been released from jail and wanted to go back. That is why he tried to take my daughter, right in the middle of the day. Right in front of everyone's eyes. 

Another police car came, and an ambulance. They checked to see if Lotte was ok, we told them what happened and then we went home. 

Lotte still has nightmares about it. 

Sincerely,

Marloes van den Heuvel