Tatiana Morales, who often hung out at the popular Bronx tattoo parlor and hair salon, Zeus Tattoos, lured the little boy outside on Saturday even though his father had made clear he did not want her to take him, employees said. The boy, Brandon Aponte, was last seen that afternoon holding hands with the teenager about a block from the tattoo parlor, they said.

The boy's father, Luis Aponte, a co-owner of the shop, called police.

Two weeks earlier the teenager, who often played with the boy, had taken him to a nearby candy store with his father's permission and had returned promptly, employees of the tattoo parlor said.

Police were asking for the public's help in finding the boy and the teenager, who is from Detroit.

The boy's parents, who share custody of him, were questioned by police Sunday afternoon.

"Mommy's looking for you, baby," the boy's mother, Teisha Elibox, with tears streaming down her face, said outside her home. "It's tearing me up. I can't be without my son."

The boy's family offered a $10,000 reward and pleaded in front of television cameras for the girl to bring him back.

"She's a little girl who doesn't know what she's doing," uncle Zeus Aponte said. "She's probably scared, and she's making mistakes behind mistakes."