1-year-old inside SUV stolen in Crown Heights, Brooklyn found safe
CROWN HEIGHTS, Brooklyn (WABC) -- A 1-year-old boy who was inside an SUV that was stolen in Brooklyn has been found safe -- and now police are looking for the man who stole the vehicle in the first place.
The little boy, Sincere Gilchrist, was sitting up and alert in the back of ambulance after he was found Monday night in the 1600 block of Park Place, about a mile east of where that white Mitsubishi Outlander was stolen.
He was taken to nearby Brookdale Hospital to be evaluated and reunited with his mother.
"I was so happy I saw his little face through the window. He started crying, he's a mama's boy ... It was the happiest moment of my life," his 29-year-old mother told Eyewitness News. She asked to remain anonymous.
Sincere's mother said she left the vehicle running at Kingston Avenue and Dean Street in Crown Heights when she went into a restaurant to pick up dinner. She said the store is "all glass" so she could see her car the entire time.
In less than 30 seconds later, someone jumped into the Outlander and took off.
"He had to see me get out of the car and he took that moment ... He had to be watching me which is scary because I don't live over there," Sincere's mother said.
An all-out, two-hour search ensued.
A woman saw the car parked half on the curb on Park Place with its hazard lights on.
At first, she didn't think anything of it and neither did Omari Kelly, who stood next to the car nearly half an hour.
"I'm thinking a lot of delivery people on this block," Kelly said. "15 minutes, 20 minutes go by, I'm thinking, 'Why is nobody coming back to this car?'"
Then came the smartphone alerts after a New York State Amber Alert was activated.
They checked the license plate and saw that it was the same license plate number issued by police, then looked inside and found the little boy.
"So of course I open the door, the kid is breathing," said Kelly. "The first thing I saw my kid's face on his face and I was worried for the parents. I felt the worry and I can only imagine that's not my kid so what must they feel."
Police are searching for the suspect involved in the auto theft.
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