4 Men Hear Screams, Rescue Girl, 8, From Abductor in N.Y.

MASSAPEQUA, N.Y. —  An 8-year-old girl who was knocked off her bicycle and dragged into a car in an apparent kidnaping attempt was freed after four men working nearby heard her cries and went to her aid, police said Tuesday.

“When you hear a little kid screaming for help, you don’t ask questions. You just go,” said Joe Rea, 21, of Massapequa Park.

The girl, whose name was not released, was riding her bike Monday afternoon when the man knocked her to the ground, dragged her through a hole in a fence and shoved her into a car, police officer Robert Wheeler said.

Rea, Joseph Veracks, Bruce O’Shaughnessy and Philip Della Rocca--all loading dock workers at a nearby shopping center--heard the girl’s screams and saw the struggle.

“We didn’t know if it was her father or what,” Rea said.

The men jumped into a pickup and drove toward the car, and when the assailant saw them heading toward him, “he rammed into us,” Rea said.

During the commotion, the girl “bit the bad guy in the arm” and jumped out of the car, Nassau County Detective Joseph Izzo said.

The man drove away, but Rea wrote down the car’s plate number and called police, who later arrested Carl Coluzzi, 27, of Massapequa, on attempted kidnaping and second-degree assault charges.

The child suffered cuts and a bite mark on her right arm. She was treated by her family physician.