Memorial Park Kidnapping

Scary Memorial Park kidnapping attempt leaves police scrambling: Man tries to nab little girl with bizarre claim

A mother claims a strange man attempted to abduct her 3-year-old daughter while the two were spending time in Memorial Park on Wednesday morning. (File photo)

A local mother escaped from a determined man who tried to kidnap her 3-year-old daughter at Memorial Park on Wednesday morning.

"I noticed someone came at me. He kept saying 'Nelly! Nell!' I'm like, 'Who is Nelly?' I thought he was looking for his dog or something," the mother tells KHOU Channel 11.

The mom immediately grabbed her young child and ran into a crowd to find help.

"He started saying 'That's my daughter, you have my daughter!' I'm like what? I don't know you. I don't know who you are," the mom says.

The mother wants to keep her and her daughter's identities hidden for their safety.

"He started saying 'That's my daughter, you have my daughter!' I'm like what? I don't know you. I don't know who you are."

According to the mom, people in the park were apparently aware of the situation and some tried to shield her from the man. Eventually she was able to get into her car, but she says that the man began trailing her in his vehicle. While speeding to a police station, she tried her best to get away from the trailing would-be kidnapper.

"I tried to lose him," the mom says. "He was running red lights."

The frantic mother was on the phone with a 911 dispatcher while driving.

"(The dispatcher) said, 'That's interesting, he's on the other line. He's telling us you have his daughter,' " the mother tells KHOU. "I was like 'Oh my gosh.' That was my worst nightmare. I have someone trying to take my kid."

The mom was eventually able to flag down a police officer. But when she did, she says she looked in her rear view mirror again and the man had disappeared.

Both the mother and daughter are extremely shaken by the experience, now left with the image of a strange man who tried to nab the girl by claiming she was his daughter.

"I don't want to go to park," the young girl tells her mom. "Mommy, you are not going to go to park."

The man is described as a white male in his early thirties, about 5-foot-9 and 160 pounds, who was wearing a grey hoodie, black hat and blue jeans during the attempted kidnapping. His vehicle was described as a large red truck, possibly a Dodge Ram with a potential license plate of YC14342 or YC142.

"I don't want to go to the park," the mom tells KHOU . "We love the park usually, we always have fun at the park."

Watch the full KHOU report:

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moms deserve better

New report ranks Texas as 9th worst state for working moms

Working mother, best and worst states for working moms in 2026

Photo by Filipp Romanovski on Unsplash

Texas is far from the best state for working mothers, the study determined.

A new national study comparing the best and worst states for working mothers has painted a bleak picture for Texas. The Lone Star State earned a disappointing rank as the ninth worst state for working moms in America.

WalletHub's 2026 report compared the work-life balance, childcare, and professional opportunities for working mothers across all 50 states and the District of Columbia to determine the rankings. Metrics analyzed include the quality of daycares, childcare costs, school system quality, gender pay gaps, the share of families in poverty, female unemployment rates, a parental leave policy score, the average length of a woman's work week (in hours), and much more.

The top five best states for working mothers in America are all located in the Northeast, according to the study. Connecticut claimed the top spot nationally, and Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Vermont respectfully rounded out the top five.

Texas ranked as the 43rd "best" state overall. The bottom three worst states for working moms are Louisiana (No. 51), Alabama (No. 50), and New Mexico (No. 49).

Texas' best ranking was in the national comparison of states with the best median salaries for women, adjusted for the local cost of living. The state ranked No. 22 overall, but it earned middling and poor ranks across numerous additional categories.

The average length of a woman's work week in Texas is the fifth-worst in the country, and the state's female unemployment rate is the 11th worst nationally. The ratio of female executives to male executives in Texas is also the sixth-worst in the U.S.

Here's how WalletHub ranked life as a working mom in Texas in other categories, where a No. 1 rank is considered the best and No. 25 is considered average:

No. 26 – Childcare costs (adjusted for the median women’s salary)
No. 26 – Pediatricians per capita
No. 27 – Parental leave policy score
No. 33 – Daycare quality
No. 35 – Gender pay gap (women’s earnings as a percentage of men’s)
No. 38 – Percentage of single-mother families living in poverty

Unfortunately, Texas' poor livability for working mothers may not surprise some. Earlier this year, Texas was dubbed the No. 4 worst state for women in a separate study by WalletHub. It shouldn't be a stretch to expect better for women — who make up nearly half of the workforce — yet still get paid 82 percent of what men make per hour.

"The U.S. still has a lot of work to do when it comes to improving conditions for working moms, given the wage gap and the lack of representation women have in certain leadership positions," WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo said.

He said the best states for working mothers offer equitable pay, strong career advancement, strong parental leave policies, top notch school systems, and high quality childcare and healthcare.

wallethub texas reports women's equality