A 2-year-old girl was found after she was abducted during a carjacking at a Miami Gardens shopping center in Florida. The toddler was inside the vehicle, along with a dog, when it was allegedly stolen from outside the Liquor Mart and Family Dollar, CBS Miami reports.
The 2009 yellow Mitsubishi Eclipse wasn’t the only thing the carjacker was taking. Little did the suspect know, he or she was tagging along a toddler and the family dog . Fortunately, the toddler was found safe at a nearby trailer park along with the car, but the suspect remains at large, according to NBC Miami.
The owner of the Mitsubishi Eclipse and father of the little girl walked inside the liquor store for just 10-seconds. The Liquor Mart owner told the Baltimore City Police that he thought the guy was looking suspicious and planned to steal a bottle.
“He went to grab a bottle, and I noticed that he was walking toward the door, and when he was walking toward the door, he was looking, like, outside. I told him, ‘The bottle, you’ve got to give me back the bottle,’ and he said, ‘Something’s going on here. My car is gone.’ Next thing you know, he starts panicking and going back and forth.”
It only took 10-seconds after the man left his child inside the vehicle for it to be gone, as well as his daughter. Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. Not only was the car and the dog found, but the daughter was left unharmed, as well.
Police are asking for the public’s help locating the carjacking suspect. The yellow 2009 Mitsubishi Eclipse left the shopping center in Miami Gardens near the Liquor Mart and Family Dollar. It was abandoned by the carjacker just 15 blocks from there near Northwest 199th Street and 47th Place.
#UPDATE : Police locate car stolen in Miami Gardens with toddler, dog inside https://t.co/8xrFffO9fh
— WSVN 7 News (@wsvn) August 20, 2016
Back in April, a Baltimore girl was taken after being in a vehicle that was carjacked. The mother left the vehicle running while she went into a restaurant, where she left her 4-year-old girl in the back seat. But she wasn’t alone.
When two men entered the vehicle, they woke the mother’s sister up, who was sleeping in the back seat along side the toddler. As they each held a gun to the mother’s sister, the carjackers shoved her out of the car and left with the child still inside.
Approximately 20-minutes later, the little girl was found alone in a dark street corner in Southeast Baltimore. Fortunately the girl was unharmed.
According to Fox Baltimore, one of the suspects was located and charged for the carjacking. Charles Johnson, 28, was charged by the Baltimore City Police. It has not been revealed whether Johnson will see additional charges for taking the child that was in the back seat of the stolen vehicle.
Another similar case occured in Hartford, Connecticut, just one year ago when a 5-year-old girl was taken as she was sleeping in the back seat and the car was stolen.
A woman claims she was forced out of the passenger seat and the car was taken while the little girl was still sleeping in the back seat. It was later reported that the vehicle stopped and let the child out at the sidewalk. The suspect was never found, but the car was located. The little girl was taken by ambulance to a hospital for a health check.
Although in these certain cases, the children left in the stolen vehicles were found safe, that isn’t always the case. Parents, please consider the risk before leaving your child in the car. It could happen to anyone.
This story is still developing and information will be released as it becomes available. If anyone has any information pertaining to this crime, you are urged to contact the Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at (305) 471-TIPS.
[Image via Inquisitr]
