Police arrested a woman accused of claiming a random 6-year-old girl was her daughter and trying to take the child from her Southeast Portland home on Sunday, court records show.

Stephanie Romero, 25, was stopped in the 7000 block of Southeast 92nd Avenue after the girl's mother and grandmother confronted the stranger in their apartment and the mother punched Romero in the face, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Romero left the girl and items she took from the family's home, hopped a fence toward the Springwater Trail and sat down on the ground until officers arrived and arrested her, the court documents said.

Romero remained jailed Monday in the Multnomah County Detention Center on suspicion of first-degree burglary, second-degree kidnapping and third-degree theft. The girl was crying and shaking when interviewed by a police officer but was unharmed, the affidavit said.

According to the girl and her mother, the child was playing tag with her brothers and friends in front of their apartment when Romero walked up to the girl and claimed she was her daughter, the affidavit said.

"Come on, I'm gonna take you on the bike trail, follow me," the girl recalled Romero saying, according to the court papers. The girl said Romero pulled her by the wrist, but she pulled away and ran into her apartment.

The girl's mother was doing laundry nearby and was told by one of her sons about Romero. Other kids had spotted Romero looking through windows at the apartments earlier, the affidavit said.

The girl said Romero followed her inside her apartment. The girl's grandmother ordered the stranger out.

Romero had been gathering items from the home in a bedsheet when the mother arrived. The parent told Romero she wasn't leaving with her daughter and hit her, the affidavit said. Romero dropped the family's possessions outside the front door and walked away.

Romero claimed she wanted to "save the kids," the affidavit said.

While being interviewed by court staff at the county jail, Romero identified herself as homeless and said she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, anxiety and depression. She said her own daughter is in the state's care, court records show. She also reported using methamphetamine daily and attending mental health and drug treatment.

Sunday marked Romero's fifth arrest in the last 30 days, court documents said. She faces accusations including unlawful entry into a motor vehicle and criminal trespass in separate cases, court records show.

-- Everton Bailey Jr.

ebailey@oregonian.com

503-221-8343; @EvertonBailey