St. Pete stolen car, baby found OK

ST. PETERSBURG (FOX 13) - A terrifying incident ended safely this afternoon after a man stole a car with an 8-month-old baby inside. Police say the suspect is still on the loose, but the baby was recovered a short time later in a parking lot, unharmed.

Around the same time the baby was found, police found the stolen car empty on 19th Street South, but they are still looking for the suspect, who they say is an African American man who looked to be in his 20s, with a thin build, 5 foot 7 inches tall, with mid-length dark hair.

“It looks like this guy didn’t realize that there was a baby in the backseat,” said Yolanda Fernandez of the St. Petersburg Police Department. “So when he pulled out and took the car, at some point he realized the baby was there and he decided to drop the baby off and take the car.”

St. Petersburg police were taking care of that baby until he was reunited with his mother and father. The father left the child in the back seat this afternoon when he went back to his apartment to grab his wallet. That’s when a witness says a man stole the car and drove off.

“He [the baby] was just crying, crying, crying, crying,” said Ricardo Larzibal, a resident in the development. “The mother was saying things back-and-forth with the police, and breaking into tears. and I believe in God, I’m a Christian, so I told her hey you know why don’t we do a group prayer together? And we all huddled right over there and prayed and asked for the safe return of this baby and everything worked out.”

Police say they do believe this incident was random and there’s no relation between the suspect and the baby’s family. 

Once they do find this man, they say he will be facing felony charges for stealing the car, along with kidnapping.