1-Year-Old Found Safe After Carjacking
UPDATED 06/23/11 11:06 a.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- There was a frantic search early this morning for a car stolen at gunpoint on the city's South Side, with a 1-year-old boy in the back seat.
As CBS 2's Susanna Song and and WBBM Newsradio 780's Mike Krauser report, police said Angela Moffett, 21, was carjacked around 4:30 a.m. at 71st Street and Calumet Avenue, near Meyering Park. She had just gotten off work at a nearby restaurant when she was accosted.
"Somebody just basically pulled a gun out on me and robbed me, took all my money, and that's basically it," Moffett said.
The carjacker ordered Moffett to get out, and drove off with her 1-year-old son, Jeremiah, still sleeping in the back seat.
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For two hours, police searched for Moffett's 2001 black Hyundai Sonata. Finally, they were able to locate it by tracing Moffett's cell phone, which she had left in the car.
The vehicle turned up in an alley on the 500 block of East 70th Street just blocks from where it was taken.
The baby was found, unharmed, in the back seat.
"He was OK. He was still in the back seat asleep," Moffett said. "I thank everybody for, you know -- I'm not going to say helping me find him, because actually my phone did it -- but I will say giving me support and everything throughout this, because it was real terrifying. And I hope that they get caught, because they actually tore my care up, but materialistic things aren't everything. I'm glad my son's back, and that's all that really matters."
Police escorted Jeremiah and his mother to the University of Chicago's Comer Children's Hospital, where he was checked out just as a precaution.
After leaving the hospital, Moffett talked to reporters on the porch of her home, then went inside to be with her son and family after a very long morning.
The carjackers remained on the loose as of 11 a.m.
