A car in Queens was stolen with a 4-month-old baby in the back seat. The car was found a short while later, and the child was not harmed. NBC New York’s Adam Harding reports.
A car was stolen in Queens with a baby still in the back seat — but the person facing charges Thursday night was not the vehicle thief.
Surveillance video shows a woman get out of the driver's side of the grey Toyota Camry in Jamaica, and walk inside a nearby store to pick up some breakfast in the morning.
"It was so fast, you blink your eye (and) the guy was gone already," said Godfrey Robinson, who works at the store the woman went into. He said she went inside to pick up an omelet, and couldn't have been in there for more than a few minutes.
Seconds later, a man in gray sweatpants and a sweatshirt walks by and can be seen circling the car, the engine still running. He looks around, then opens the driver's side door and drives off — as a 4-month-old boy was in the backseat.
The theft took less than a minute in all.
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The woman then leaves the store and is seen on video looking around, frantically searching her left and right. She walks into the middle of the Hollis Avenue, but by then the suspect was already gone, police said.
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"She was very fantic, like 'Oh my God, the car is missing! The car is missing!' First thing I did was call 911, cops were here in less than four minutes," Robinson said.
Police quickly recovered Camry, which was left abandoned a few blocks away. Fortunately, the child was found unharmed.
The car thief has not yet been caught, but the 33-year-old woman — the child's babysitter — faces charges including reckless endangerment. The family of the boy told NBC New York that they were relieved their son was uninjured.
"I’m not judging, but as a mother, I wouldn’t do it, I’d never leave my baby in the car. Take the baby with you," one woman said. "As a mother, I know it’s hard. She should’ve taken the baby."
