A South Omaha father’s quick daycare run turned into every parent’s worst-case scenario early Monday morning when a thief seized on an opportunity that law enforcement agencies across the country spend considerable energy warning the public about: a running, unattended vehicle sitting on a public street.
The fact that a child was inside made a fairly common crime exponentially more alarming. Omaha Police responded to the area of 23rd and Drexel just before 6 a.m. after the father reported that someone had stolen his car with his 6-year-old still buckled in. Officers located the child safe and uninjured shortly after, and also found a separate stolen vehicle in the process.
The suspect, however, remains at large. Whether they realized a child was in the vehicle before driving off, or discovered it afterward and ditched the car quickly enough to avoid apprehension, is not something police have confirmed. What is clear is that the outcome here was significantly better than it had any right to be. A 6-year-old, alone in a stolen car with a stranger behind the wheel, before sunrise, is a situation with a lot of ways to go sideways…