A mother who said a stranger grabbed her child in a neighborhood in Charlotte, North Carolina, is extremely upset about what turned out to be a prank.
The man behind that prank, Sandino Davis, said it's worth the risk of getting hurt or possibly killed to pull those jokes on the streets of Charlotte.
>>MORE: Family traumatized after 'kidnapping prank' in North Carolina
"It's a prank,” Davis said.
Davis' prank wasn't funny to the child’s mother.
"The kidnap test,” Davis said, describing the prank.
Davis showed the video of him grabbing a boy and walking off with him.
Shelly Clark, the boy's mother, said a family was taking up most of the sidewalk, so she and her family had to go around them in a single-file line.
They were passing Davis when Clark noticed Davis pick up his cellphone and start recording what seemed like a video for Facebook Live. She said her children were behind her, to get around him and to avoid getting in his shot.
Then, she heard Davis say something that caused her to turn back around.
"I hear the word 'kidnapped' and, as I turn, when I hear the word 'kidnapped,' I see him grab my son in a bear hug and he literally starts running down the street," Clark said. "My daughter is then running after him, holding onto my son's leg and trying to beat on the guy."
Clark started running after them as well.
"When I reach him, he drops my son on the ground and he crouches down to the ground and he says, 'Ma'am, ma'am, this is a kidnap pranking. I'm pranking you.'"
In the video, the boy's sister immediately grabs Davis, and Clark is seen walking up, wearing a yellow shirt.
“It's unfortunate he's out there doing this stuff,” Clark said.
WSOC-TV asked Davis if there was anything he'd like to say to Clark.
"What I told her before. I'm sorry. It's nothing but a prank,” Davis said.
Davis has recorded many more pranks around Charlotte, including one in which he's seen putting a man in a headlock, another in which he grabs a man's hat and another where he tries to touch a passenger on the light rail.
WSOC-TV asked what would happen if someone pulled a gun on him.
"I don't do pranks like that. I don't do no pranks like that,” Davis said.
Last month, a warrant for Davis was filed on suspicion of disorderly conduct at a Charlotte-Area Transit System terminal and harassing passengers.
The warrant said he took items from patrons, pushed them and threw things at them in his videos.
Davis said he doesn't try to hurt anyone in his pranks.
"It's all for camera, for pranks,” Davis said.
Davis is a father, which is one of the reasons Clark has decided not to press charges, but she worries his pranks could end badly one day.
Davis said he would do another kidnap prank video, but it would be staged.
Davis isn't being investigated for the prank in NoDa, but he's still facing charges, accused of harassing CATS passengers in 13 other prank videos.
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