Texas police are receiving praise for quick-thinking actions that led to the safe return of a baby allegedly kidnapped Monday during a car theft.
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Authorities were made aware of the situation when a woman called the Fort Worth Police Department to report an unknown male had jumped into her vehicle and drove off with her baby inside.
Cops immediately responded and, within an hour, recovered the car — but there was a major problem. The six-month-old baby boy wasn’t inside.
Fortunately, officers were able to find the child placed next to trash and abandoned furniture and stop what could have been a truly dangerous — and even deadly — situation.
“Officers gathered information from the suspect and began checking the area,” the Fort Worth Police Department said in a Facebook statement. “Approximately five minutes later, officers located the baby and car seat lying in a ravine nearby.”
Video of the rescue shows officers bolting toward a car seat on the ground.
“Got it!” one officer yells.
A cop, clearly moved by the situation, picks the crying child up to provide comfort. “It’s OK, it’s OK,” the officer can be heard telling the baby.
Watch the moment the child was rescued:
The worried mother and her baby were reunited and the child was uninjured.
A man claiming to be the baby’s uncle told KDFW-TV the incident unfolded when his sister-in-law, the baby’s mother, stopped by his house and went inside for a few minutes.
That’s when suspect Elliott Reyes allegedly hopped inside the vehicle and drove off with the baby inside. Neighbors reportedly saw the incident and alerted the family — and that’s when police were called.
Officers have since spoken about the ordeal, noting their initial fears after apprehending Reyes and realizing the baby wasn’t inside the car.
“We were freaking out at that moment. We had no baby,” Fort Worth Police Sergeant Ronnie Chau said, according to told KDFW-TV. “We put him in a vehicle and had him direct us to where the baby was.”
Chau said he was “elated” to find the baby boy alive and healthy.
Reyes was charged with kidnapping, auto theft, and abandoning/endangering a child.
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