CHARLESTON, W.Va. --  A Charleston man was arrested Sunday after allegedly trying to kidnap a 2-year-old girl.

Police say Samuel Edward Spain, 30, followed Tara Canterbury and her 2-year-old daughter from Wendy's on Washington Street East to a nearby Exxon station on Sunday, according to a criminal complaint on file in Kanawha Magistrate Court. Once inside, Spain allegedly kept following the mother and daughter around the store.

Canterbury told police she picked the girl up because Spain wouldn't stop staring at the girl. When Canterbury asked what Spain was doing, he allegedly began to reach for the 2-year-old.

The girl's father, Donald Smith, then came up and asked Spain "what his problem was," according to the complaint. Spain allegedly replied that the little girl was his sister's child.

Smith then pushed Spain out of the store.

Patrolman B.A. Lightner of the Charleston Police Department said he discovered Spain across the street and asked him what he was doing, according to the criminal complaint. Spain replied, "I was going to get my daughter and take her to my wife's house," the complaint said.

According to the complaint, Spain told Lightner that his daughter was across the street at the Exxon station, but did not know the girl's name.

"She's not my child, but she called me dad, so I was going to take her home and my wife and I could raise her," Spain allegedly told the officer.

Spain was arrested and charged with attempted kidnapping. He was in the South Central Regional Jail Monday afternoon in lieu of $175,000 bond.

Reach Rusty Marks at rustyma...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1215.