Car Stolen With Sleeping Child Still Inside

Police are investigating after a thief stole, and then abandoned a car early Friday morning with a child still sleeping inside, authorities said. The theft took place at outside a car dealership in the 900 block of 18th Avenue in Lower Valisburg, said Newark Police Department spokesman, Sgt. Ronald Glover. The driver of the vehicle, whose name was not released, left a sleeping child inside his parked car after exiting to speak to someone, Glover said.

An unidentified thief then entered the still-running vehicle and drove off, Glover said. The car was recovered minutes later on Spencer Street with the child still asleep inside, he added. 

An investigation of the incident by the Newark Police Department Robbery Squad is ongoing, Glover said. Police are also investigating a similar incident that occurred earlier this month, where a child was briefly taken by an armed thief during an attempted car theft. On Oct. 19, an armed thief entered a car left idle outside a Columbia Avenue residence and drove off with a 10-year-old boy still inside.

The unidentified thief, upon realizing the boy was still in the car, threatened him with a gun and ordered him to exit, the reports said. The car was later recovered, and the boy was unharmed in the incident, the reports said.