A homeless woman with a lengthy rap sheet allegedly tried to snatch two toddlers from a Manhattan playground in a brazen, broad-daylight ordeal earlier this week, police and prosecutors said.
Jessie Pennill, 34, was nabbed after eyeing the two tots — a 1-year-old and a 2-year-old — inside Madison Square Park at noon Wednesday, according to a criminal complaint.
She is accused of first picking up the 1-year-old as the kid was playing, then refusing to hand them back to the child’s carer — who had to physically tear the toddler from Pennill’s arm, the complaint said.
The alleged perp then quickly snatched up the other child and started heading for the park’s exit, according to the court filing, which did not say if the kids were related.
The 2-year-old child’s carer managed to thwart the attempted abduction by screaming for Pennill to put the kid down, the complaint added.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the two adults who were watching over the kids were their parents or possibly their nannies.
Pennill was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on charges of attempted kidnapping and endangering the welfare of a child on Thursday.
She has a long list of prior arrests to her name, including six assaults dating back to 2011, cops said.
Pennill was last busted for randomly slugging a victim in the face at Lexington Avenue and East 125th Street in East Harlem on July 12, according to police.
She is being held on a $15,000 cash bond.
Her next court hearing is set for Aug. 20.
