Eastchester police investigating theft of car with child inside
EASTCHESTER - Eastchester police are continuing to look for the suspect who stole a car with a child inside while the car's owner was taking another child to a bus stop on Thursday.
The suspect quickly abandoned first the child, then the car. Another car police said the suspect subsequently rode off in, also stolen, was later recovered in New Jersey.
According to Eastchester police, they received a 911 call around 8:10 a.m. Thursday that a car had been stolen while parked in the Green Knolls section of town.
Police said the car had been left running with the key inside, and a child was also left in the running vehicle. The owner of the vehicle was nearby, escorting another child to a bus stop.
The owner saw a man get into his vehicle and tried to stop him before he drove off, but the suspect got away.
Police said the stolen vehicle was driven to the intersection of Scarsdale Avenue and Harney Road, where the suspect stopped and removed the child.
Witnesses told police that after the suspect removed the child, he tried to get back inside the stolen vehicle. But when he was observed by witnesses, he instead got into another waiting vehicle nearby, a white Audi SUV. That vehicle was last seen fleeing on Harney Road toward the Bronx River Parkway.
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Police said according to witnesses, there were four men and a woman inside the SUV, all in their teens or early 20s.
The child who had been in the stolen vehicle was found to be unharmed and was quickly reunited with their parents, police said.
Meanwhile, police said the SUV was found abandoned at the side of a roadway at an unidentified location in New Jersey, and was impounded. Police said that car had been reported stolen from a New Jersey municipality several days earlier.
"We're fortunate that no one was harmed in this incident," Eastchester Police Chief Joseph Rodriguez said in a news release. "Unfortunately, over the past two years we have seen a significant increase in the number of stolen automobiles, along with larcenies from vehicles."
Rodriguez urged residents to never leave their vehicles running unoccupied, never leave keys inside their vehicles and to always lock their vehicles, especially overnight.
Anyone who has information about Thursday's incident, witnessed it or has a video recording of it is asked to contact the detective division of Eastchester police at 914-961-3464.
Mike Randall covers breaking news for the Times Herald-Record, Poughkeepsie Journal and The Journal News/lohud. Reach him at mrandall@th-record.com or on Twitter @mikerandall845
This article originally appeared on Times Herald-Record: Police still looking for suspect who stole car with child inside
