Car Thief Steals Nissan Maxima With 9-Month-Old Baby Inside
A car thief in Georgia didn’t expect an extra passenger when stealing a blue Nissan Maxima sedan this Saturday. A 9-month-baby girl, who is now safe, was left in the backseat of the car unattended when it was stolen.
The New York Daily News reports that around 9:45 p.m. on Saturday, the Dekalb County police were notified that a dark blue 2004 Nissan Altima was taken from a Little Caesar’s parking lot in Atlanta’s Dekalb County Shopping Plaza, off of Tucker Norcross Road.
#DKPD Searching for 2004 Nissan Maxima stolen with 9 month old in back seat. GA tag PYV7234 Dk Blue color pic.twitter.com/q5xaZ75GBp
— DeKalb County Police Department (@DeKalbCountyPD) May 31, 2015
The 9-month-old baby girl was waiting inside the car as her father stepped inside the pizza restaurant to pick up a meal. It was within those few minutes of leaving the baby unattended that a car thief quickly jumped into the Maxima and took off, with the infant still in her car seat.
Three hours later, a blue Maxima was spotted at another pizza shop, Marco’s Pizza, off of Shallowford Road in Dekalb County. Employees thought nothing of the car at first, but after leaving work at midnight, they realized it was still there. Employee Jonathan Phai indicated that he asked a female co-worker to take a look inside the car.
“Before she got in the car she noticed that the car was running and it was kind of fogging up and I’m guessing the AC was on. She looked inside and saw a baby seat at first. She didn’t really see a child or anything. I asked her to go look inside again and then she did notice that there is a child inside. She seemed to be asleep.”
Phai immediately called 911. The baby, identified as 9-month-old Brittany, was pulled safely from the car shortly after. The sleepy infant was medically checked out at the scene of the incident, and police indicate that so far, she seems to be just fine.
The baby is now reunited with her parents, but police officers aren’t so quick to dismiss the father’s lack of judgement. They warned him, along with other parents, to never leave a child unattended in a car, not even for a minute.
“You should never ever ever leave your child in a running vehicle. We are just really, really glad that this outcome is positive tonight. It could have been really, really tragic.”
The father, whose name is undisclosed, may face charges of leaving his baby unattended. Meanwhile, however, police are still searching for the person who took the Maxima. Police are viewing surveillances videos of the parking lots where the car was left, but so far, no physical description of the car thief is available.
[Photo Courtesy of WBS-TV/Atlanta]
