An Oregon car thief allegedly stole a parked SUV, drove down the street and found a 4-year-old inside – so he turned around, went back to the place and scolded the mother for leaving her son unaccompanied.
The mother left her son in a running vehicle before entering a butcher shop in Beaverton at 9:10 am on Saturday, according to Beaverton police spokesman Matt Henderson.
The mother stayed inside for just a minute when the police said she and the employee saw a man idle his vehicle and take off. He drove about half a block before turning around.
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When he returned to the store, police said he scolded the mother for leaving a child alone in the running vehicle and demanded that she remove the child from the SUV.
After she did, the police said he took off again.
Authorities recovered the stolen vehicle later in the day, 10 miles away, in Portland, but the suspect remains at large.
Henderson said the suspect was a white adult male in his 20s or 30s with dark brown or black braided hair. He was wearing “a multicolored mask in the style of COVID”.
There were no external security cameras in the parking lot, but the mother and an employee saw the car theft, he said.
The 4-year-old son and the mother were not hurt.
“But it was a traumatic incident, I’m sure,” said Henderson.
The investigation is ongoing.
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The unidentified woman told Fox 12 Oregon that she would “never” leave her son in a running vehicle again.
“As mothers, we get very busy and think that we are just running for a second and this is just a perfect example of just disappointing our guards and how it could have ended terribly,” she told the station.