MESA, AZ – A 24-year-old man was arrested on Thursday after he allegedly stole a vehicle with a 2-year-old child in the back seat on a QuikTrip near Broadway Road and Stapley Drive last week.
Mesa police said officers responded to the store on Friday, March 5, just before 6 pm, for reports of a stolen vehicle.
Authorities said the vehicle, a dark blue BMW 328I, was parked outside the store and was still running with a 2-year-old child in the back seat. The boy’s mother told police she left her son in the car because he was sleeping and she did not want to wake him. She also left her cell phone in the car, which authorities later were able to track.
The QuikTrip surveillance video was used to obtain a suspect’s description.
Bureau of Police Department
Authorities were able to trace the cell phone to a 99 Cents store near Gilbert Road and Southern Avenue, where police officers found the phone in a backpack, along with other mother’s belongings.
After analyzing the store’s surveillance video, the police said the man who left the backpack was the same man from the QuikTrip surveillance video.
Police officers also found that the suspect had changed clothes at the 99 Cents store after his original clothing was found inside the bathroom and throughout the store.
Bureau of Police Department
Just before 7 pm, police found the BMW abandoned in a neighborhood close to QuikTrip. The child was found inside the vehicle unharmed.
Authorities were able to identify the suspect as Rodrigo Garcia, 24, with facial recognition and fingerprints.
On Thursday, a 99 Cents store employee contacted the police saying Garcia was at the store asking about his backpack.
The police responded and Garcia was taken into custody.
According to the police, Garcia admitted taking the vehicle and said that when he saw the 2-year-old boy in the back seat, he abandoned the car in a neighborhood.
Garcia was arrested on several criminal charges, including kidnapping and vehicle theft.