Crook Steals Vehicle From Daycare With Infant Still Inside, Dumps Baby In Alley, Father Arrested

Police put a mild damper on a Colorado Springs, Colo., dad’s reunion with his 3-month-old daughter by arresting the man for leaving his child unattended in a parked and running vehicle, earlier this week.

It all happened on late Monday morning when the father allegedly left his infant daughter alone in his still-running pickup truck, while parked at a local daycare center, according to CBS4Denver News.

While the man was away from the vehicle, someone jumped in it and sped away with the baby inside. The suspect then stopped a short distance from the daycare and reportedly abandoned the little girl in an alley behind a cardboard box, near a dumpster, before fleeing the scene.

It was a chilly Colorado morning and the baby girl was not dressed for wintry weather but miraculously, a Good Samaritan delivery driver happened to be in the area and rescued the infant minutes later.

The hero driver, Matthew Barnes described the moment that he spotted the abandoned little girl, still strapped into her car seat.

“She didn’t have any socks, she wasn’t wearing a coat, no beanie or anything like that on her head or anything. She was just wearing a long-sleeve shirt and some pants. She was an infant and she was pretty exposed to the elements, so if she had been sitting out there for maybe three or four hours, you know, I think she could have gotten hypothermia, absolutely.”

Meanwhile, the father returned only to realize that his truck had been stolen, along with his little girl. The distraught dad contacted police who at once began searching for the missing child and the vehicle.

The father, who was identified as Dustin Sargent-Davis, told police that he had been inside of the daycare for less than two minutes when the incident happened. Sargent-Davis said that he was initially unsure of what to believe when he discovered his 2007 Dodge pickup gone, with his daughter inside.

At first, Sargent-Davis said he thought that it must have been some sort of prank before panic set in at the terrifying realization that his infant daughter had essentially been kidnapped due to his own carelessness.

As police continued their search, it was a brief time later when Sargent-Davis received the good news that his daughter had been found unharmed and would soon be returned to him.

Sargent-Davis was briefly taken into custody after being reunited with his daughter. He was arrested on charges of misdemeanor child abuse for leaving his daughter alone in a running vehicle, according to the Colorado Springs Police Department.

At the time of this writing, police still had not located the vehicle.

[Featured Image by MicrovOne/Thinkstock]