DESTIN — Two men were arrested Sunday afternoon, Sept. 20 after placing two children on their kayaks at Crab Island, Destin and refusing to give them back to their mothers.
Daniel Maria Hernandez, 54, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Gabriel Bobavilla Gonzalez, 55, of Crestview are each charged with false imprisonment of a child under age 13.
According to an Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office arrest report, a mother from Illinois was on a pontoon boat with her two children, a three-year-old boy and one-year-old girl, along with another mother from Santa Rosa Beach and her 11-year-old daughter.
The women alleged the men placed the boy and the 11 year old on kayaks and would not give them back, even though the toddler was crying to return. Hernandez is also accused of trying to take the one year old from her mother's arms, as Gonzalez-Bobavilla paddled away with the 11 year old.
According to the report, the women said the men told them they "just want to have fun" and "show them a good time," and the women said they had no interaction with either man before the incident and never gave them permission to take their children. In the report, they said they had to struggle for the children's' return as the defendants tried to take them away.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview, Philadelphia men charged with false imprisonment in Destin