
Surveillance video obtained on January 24 shows the theft of a vehicle with a 3-year-old child in the back seat. The toddler was not harmed, but the incident at a Citgo gas station/convenience store in Stratford, Connecticut, on January 22 reinforces an oft-repeated warning from police to not leave children alone in cars, especially with the engine running.
The video shows the driver of a white 2022 Hyundai pull up just in front of the store at Boston and Barnum avenues. Soon after the man leaves the SUV and goes inside, the driver of a sedan that later turned out to be stolen pulls into the lot on the passenger side of the Hyundai.
The sedan driver backs up and a person wearing a hooded sweatshirt gets out of the front passenger door, crouches, and hurries to the SUV, opening the passenger-side door and speeding off, passing the stolen sedan at the parking lot exit. Seconds later, a man exits the store and runs along the front of the building toward the fleeing vehicles.
The toddler was dropped off at a fire station in Bridgeport, according to police. Two suspects, ages 17 and 13, later were arrested after crashing the Hyundai during a chase on Route 8 and a foot pursuit, police said. Each is charged with second-degree kidnapping and two counts of risk of injury to a child, among other charges, Stratford police Capt. Robert Burroughs said in a news release.
“Thanks to the quick action of Bridgeport Fire Department Engine 10, the toddler was reunited with her parents and is in good health,” Burroughs said
The 17-year-old male suspect also is charged with engaging police in pursuit, operating a motor vehicle without a license, reckless driving, larceny of a motor vehicle and first-degree reckless endangerment, Burroughs said. The 13-year-old male suspect, he said, also is charged with larceny of a motor vehicle.
—by Jesse Leavenworth
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