Kidnapped girl told to wait outside while neighbor called 911

EVERETT, Wash. — An Everett girl kidnapped from her bedroom was told to wait outside when she wandered to a stranger's house and knocked on the door.

Erik King said he's gotten a lot of criticism for not letting the 5-year-old inside his apartment. The anxiety is clear in his voice as he told a 911 dispatcher the half-naked child was pounding on the door.

"There's a little kid banging at my door," he told the dispatcher. "I'm not opening it up. No. It's 4 o'clock in the morning"

The girl told King her name is Hailey. She is muffled in the background of the call telling King she lives in an apartment nearby but doesn't know exactly where her home is.

In the call, King asks the girl, "Where are your parents? Where do you live?"

"If I could be more polite at the time and go back, I would have," King said.

King, who has a 4-year-old son, said he's ashamed he kept the girl outside until police arrived but he worried someone was with her who could have hurt his family.

"A lot of people have told me that I should have thrown a blanket on her and taken her in but I didn't," said King.

Everett police said a stranger pressed a ladder against the girl's bedroom window and pulled her out while her father slept in the next room. A man who lives next door also called 911 after seeing her open window as he left.

"the way that everything's propped up against the window--it doesn't look like a 5-year-old would do it," he told the dispatcher.

Surveillance video shows the kidnapper carried the girl down the street to the Interurban Trail where he planned to assault her. Her pants were gone when she showed up at King's house, but she was not hurt.
The girl first told King she thought the man was her dad—until she noticed he had earrings.

"She went directly to someone's door. It's astonishing how put together that little girl is," King said.

Detectives continue to follow tips but have no new information on a suspect