A 15-time convicted felon is behind bars after allegedly hijacking an SUV with a baby inside, dragging the child’s mother, and later abandoning the infant on a Chicago sidewalk. Jeremy Ochoa, 38, was arrested around 11:45 a.m. last Thursday, less than two hours after the carjacking.
Authorities say Ochoa approached a 36-year-old woman in the 1200 block of South Independence and forcibly took her 2011 GMC Acadia with the woman’s 7-month-old daughter still strapped inside the vehicle. Ochoa allegedly dragged the mother with the SUV as he sped away.
Chicago police tracked the stolen SUV using a combination of license plate reader alerts and pings from a cellphone that had been left inside the vehicle. They eventually located the SUV, unoccupied, in the 6200 block of South King Drive.
The 7-month-old girl was later found “abandoned on the sidewalk,” prosecutors said…