A car thief who discovered a small child in the backseat of the SUV he boosted Saturday in Beaverton, Oregon drove back to the child’s mother, demanded she take the child out of the backseat and drove off once more, police say.
“He actually lectured the mother for leaving the child in the car and threatened to call the police on her,” said Officer Matt Henderson, a Beaverton police spokesman.
The mother parked just outside the store’s front door and went inside to buy a gallon of milk and some meat, Henderson said. She was never more than 15 feet from the car, but she made a critical error.
She left the engine running and the doors unlocked.
“What she did was not a crime. She was within sight and sound of her child,” Henderson said. “But she left the car running, so take that extra step, take the keys with you. It’s a good reminder to take extra precaution when we have our little ones with us.”
Henderson described the incident as “a crime of opportunity.” The thief saw the car was unlocked and had keys in the ignition, and he went for it.
The thief quickly realized a 4-year-old child was seated in a booster seat behind him, U-turned in the adjacent Video Only parking lot and returned to the mother to berate her for leaving the child in the car.
“He orders her to take the kid out of the car, and she does,” Henderson said.