A woman accused of abducting two young sisters in Atlanta had befriended the girls’ mother via a Facebook group, gaining her trust and eventually offering to babysit last weekend, which is when the alleged kidnapping occurred, according to police. Police said she’s also been accused of a simi lar attempt in another state at least once before. Lakesha Brown, 42, was arrested Monday after police found her with the girls, ages 4 and 11 months, hiding them in what police described as an “unclean and unsuitable trailer” with no air conditioning amid 97-degree Atlanta heat. Bodycam footage released by the Atlanta Police Department shows officers closing in on the trailer and arresting Brown on Monday after the mother reported to police Brown had failed to return her children after an outing on Saturday. Officers found the trailer when a detective checking vehicles nearby heard a baby crying from inside. The girls were unharmed and returned to their mother, police said, and Brown now faces two counts each of kidnapping and first-degree cruelty to children. A warrant said Brown had met the mother in a “pregnancy mom” Facebook group and over the course of a year gained her trust, presenting herself as part of a support network that assisted mothers with babysitting and other services. Brown was supposed to be babysitting her girls on Saturday, the mother said, and she’d told her that she would take them to Walmart and a candy store. The mother said she had called Brown throughout the day to check on her children and was told they were OK, but when she went to their scheduled meetup location to pick them up, Brown and the children were not there. She told police she called Brown again and was given various excuses for her being late with the girls until finally, Brown told her that she “was in an accident” and did not have her children, who were now in custody of the Georgia Division for Family and Children Services. The mother then called 911 to report the kidnapping, a call that triggered an Amber Alert. Investigating officers found that the kids were not in state custody as Brown had claimed. The FBI and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation were contacted, and the FBI used “cell phone ping technology” to track Brown’s cell phone to the area where she and the children were found, according to the warrant. As Special Victims Unit detectives investigated, the warrant said, they found that Brown also had an active warrant out in Alabama for failing to appear in court while out on bond in another kidnapping case that unfolded similarly — in 2021, she allegedly befriended a woman through a Facebook group, offered her babysitting services and is accused of then kidnapping that woman’s 4-day-old son, who was later reunited safely with his mother. In a press release from the Jefferson County, Alabama, Sheriff’s office, sent out after Brown’s 2021 arrest, officials indicated that even that might not have been Brown’s first time attempting something similar. “Information that has been received during this investigation suggests that Brown may have attempted this type of behavior in the past,” the press release said. After her Atlanta arrest, Brown waived her first appearance at Fulton County Jail. Attorney information was not immediately available. ...read more read less