Staff Report
ONEONTA _ An 8-month-old boy was taken by his biological father from a Chestnut Street apartment Wednesday morning without permission from the boy's mother, according to state police at Oneonta.
At about 10 a.m., troopers responded to 406 Chestnut St. for a reported kidnapping and, with the assistance of the Oneonta Police Department, police began looking for Patrick J. Souffrant, 33, who had left the home in a gold-colored car, according to troopers and police radio traffic.
The boy was returned unharmed to 406 Chestnut St. by Souffrant about an hour later, troopers said.
Souffrant, who is originally from Brooklyn but has been living in Oneonta, was taken into custody without incident and charged with second-degree burglary, a felony, and second-degree custodial interference and fourth-degree criminal mischief, both misdemeanors.
The mother of the child, whom police did not identify, had been staying with a friend at 406 Chestnut St. when Souffrant entered the apartment by breaking a door window, according to troopers. Souffrant took a cell phone from a witness, preventing her from calling 911, and then left with the baby in a car driven by an uninvolved person, troopers said.
Souffrant was arraigned before Judge Bruce Smith in Oneonta Town Court and sent to Otsego County jail on $10,000 bail or $20,000 bond. He is to reappear in town court at a later date.
