‘Don’t take the chance’ dad warns after kids kidnapped in stolen car
(KRON) — A toddler was kidnapped by a car thief in Oakland Tuesday, dropped off in San Leandro, and found by a good Samaritan who spotted the boy wandering alone. Law enforcement officers said the boy was physically OK and reunited with his mother.
In Portland, Oregon on Monday, two children jumped out of stolen car to escape at a red light after their father had left them alone in the backseat.
Following the kidnappings, child safety advocates are stressing the importance for never leaving a child alone in a vehicle. “Not even for a minute. It only takes a few seconds for a car thief to jump into a vehicle and be gone. Thieves watch for vehicles to be left running, or unattended with the keys inside. Most of the time, they don’t realize that there is a child inside until after they have already stolen the vehicle,” wrote Kids and Car Safety, a national child safety group.
According to data documented by Kids and Car Safety, in 2023, 162 children were kidnapped by car thieves nationwide.
In Portland, a father left the family’s car running while he went inside a building. A thief stole it and sped away with two boys, ages 9 and 10, in the backseat. The father told KOIN that he “saw the car leave, and thought I wasn’t going to see my boys anymore.”
The Portland boys managed to escape 10 minutes later by jumping out of the car at a stoplight and flagging down another motorist for help. Their father said those 10 minutes seemed “like hours.” He cautioned other parents, “Don’t take the chance that I took.”
Oakland has the highest rate of car thefts of any city in the United States, according to the FBI’s crime report.
An East Bay mother was horrified on Tuesday after her car was stolen next to the Oakland Coliseum, and the thief drove off with the mother’s 2-year-old son still inside. Investigators said the thief dropped the toddler off in a different city, San Leandro, and the boy was abandoned.
“Thankfully, the child was found a short time later, unharmed, wandering the streets near a warehouse. The mother and child were reunited after callers reported seeing the child dropped off and left alone,” the Marin County Sheriff’s Office wrote.
The stolen car was found hours later ditched in a parking lot in Mill Valley.
Marin County Sheriff’s Sgt. Adam Schermerhorn said the mother helped trace the car’s whereabouts by using the “Find My” app. The app tracked the location of an Apple iPhone and AirPods that were still in the car. Surveillance video showed two people exiting the car in Mill Valley and ditching the stolen vehicle.
Detectives later found two suspects near Rock Hill Road. Schermerhorn said, “The suspects either took the phone, or ear buds, and we were able to track them.”
One of the arrested suspects was identified as Viorel Andrei Morari, 34, of Oakland. He was booked into Santa Rita Jail on suspicion of child abuse, kidnapping, vehicle theft, and drug possession. Morari is scheduled to be arraigned in court on Friday.
The Oregon car thief was also nabbed after a police chase across state lines into Washington, KOIN reported. Iosha Millage, 33, of Portland, was booked into a Clark County jail.
Kids and Car Safety wrote, “Although the victims of these types of incidents typically survive, it is incredibly traumatizing for everyone involved.”
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