Metro

FBI hunts woman who kidnapped baby as victim, 23, begins life with parents

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The fake mom targeted by the FBI in the sensational kidnapping of Carlina White is a drug-addled drifter with a lengthy rap sheet that includes busts for embezzlement, forgery and theft, authorities said yesterday.

Ann Pettway, a shadowy figure who used multiple aliases and birth dates as she traveled from Connecticut to Georgia to North Carolina, dropped out of sight yesterday with the law hot on her trail.

Her home in North Carolina stood empty and she did not show up at the home of her mother, Mary Pettway, in Bridgeport, Conn., as she had vowed during an interview with The Post.

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“As we’ve learned of her involvement in this abduction, we’ve been working to locate her, and we haven’t been able to reach her,” said Keith Acree, a spokesman for the Department of Correction in North Carolina, where Pettway is on parole until June 2012 after her conviction on an embezzlement charge.

Her status requires permission to leave the state.

“She has not sought permission and permission has not been granted for her to leave,” Acree said.

The FBI’s New York office is working with the NYPD to track down Pettway and haul her in for questioning, said a law-enforcement source.

The DA is also helping the US attorney, the source said, but any charges would be lodged by the feds because the statute of limitations on state kidnapping charges has expired.

With the help of the Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the NYPD, White discovered her true identity 23 years after she was snatched as an infant from Harlem Hospital, and last weekend enjoyed an emotional reunion with her mom, Joy White, and dad, Carl Tyson.

After her abduction, Carlina had been raised in Bridgeport and later in Georgia as Nejdra Nance. She came to suspect over the years that Pettway was not her birth mother and finally confirmed the truth when DNA tests this week revealed a match with her biological parents.

The kidnapping — the first known abduction of an infant from a city hospital — shocked New Yorkers in August 1987. Carlina’s emotional reunion with her birth parents this week made headlines worldwide.

Meanwhile, new details emerged of Pettway’s criminal past and troubled history.

As a troubled teen in 1977, she spent nearly a month in jail after an arrest on a larceny charge in Waterbury, Conn.

In 1991 she was charged with forgery and larceny in her hometown of Bridgeport and sentenced to three years probation.

Two years later she pleaded guilty to larceny in Wallingford, Conn., and got a suspended sentence and probation.

In 1997 she was busted for pot possession in Bridgeport, fined $100 and again put on probation.

Most recently, Pettway pleaded guilty to embezzlement for stealing $130 in cash, a pair of men’s pants and a scarf from her employer, Hudson Belk, a Raleigh, NC, branch of a popular southern department store.

Carlina, who has accused Pettway of beating her with a shoe, said yesterday she was not surprised by her alleged abductor’s shady past.

“It doesn’t surprise me. She was always doing some bulls–t. She got arrested a couple of times when I was around,” White said.

Pettway, who according to her Facebook page is a kitchen-prep cook at Shaw University in Raleigh, has variously listed her birth date on public records as 1960 or 1962, and has used at least two Social Security numbers. She has also gone by several aliases, including Annugetta Pettway and Andrea Pettway.

While her criminal past and suspicions in Carlina’s kidnapping paint a portrait of a troubled life, relatives in Bridgeport and neighbors in North Carolina yesterday told a different story.

Ann Pettway’s niece, who identified herself only as Kyyese, said she would often see her aunt and the cousin she knew as Nejdra at family get-togethers.

“Nejdra and Ann seemed to be so close, they were always laughing together,” Kyyese said. “They were a lot alike. Ann was loud and Nejdra was quiet, but the way they handled things was the same.”

Kyyese said she didn’t believe the allegations against her aunt.

“Anyone who sees Nejdra’s young daughter Samani says she looks just like Ann,” Kyyese said outside the family’s Bridgeport home.

Samani loves her grandmother and great-grandmother, Kyyese said.

“Ann spoiled Nejdra’s daughter. She gives her everything she wants,” Kyyese said.

North Carolina neighbor Penny Lewter also doubted the allegations.

“I’m quite surprised. I just can’t believe it,” she said. “Ann is a wonderful person. She’s an excellent mother to her son, very protective and very loving.”

Neighbor Sonova Smith said Pettway told her she moved to North Carolina to escape her crime-ridden Bridgeport neighborhood.

“She told me she moved here to start over, to start a new life,” Smith said.