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Girl Recounts Being Abducted By Car Thief, Who Eventually Met With Street Justice

CHICAGO (CBS) -- One minute, a 13-year-old girl was sitting in a parked SUV. The next minute, a suspected car thief jumped in and took her for a dangerous ride.

It happened 10 days ago. But as CBS 2's Pamela Jones reports, the victim's family helped bring the suspect to justice over the weekend.

Police say it happened back on Oct. 21. The girl was sitting in the passenger's seat of her godmother's Chevy Tahoe, parked near 73rd and Loomis, when a man jumped into the driver's seat.

Before she knew it, the car thief took off and ignored her pleadings to let her out.

"I was terrified," she says.

The girl's mom says the family spotted 18-year-old Daniel Paige near where he'd stolen the truck. When Paige saw the family, the victim says he locked the doors, rolled the windows up and took off again, hitting parked cars in the process.

"I didn't have my seatbelt on, and I fell out of the seat. I hit my head on the dashboard," she says.

Eventually her mom saw the truck, and ran into the street to try to stop the driver. When told the police were on their way, the car thief jumped out and ran off, she says.

He didn't get away for good. Two days ago, her daughter's uncle and father saw Paige in the neighborhood. He got a black eye while relatives held him for police.

Daniel Page, Alleged Car Thief
Daniel Page (Chicago Police Department)

"He swung first," the girl's mother says.

Neighbors say they are happy the family took action.

Paige was charged with kidnapping and is being held on $150,000 bond.

Shortly before the original incident, the woman who owned the SUV had just gotten out of the truck to deliver some food to an elderly woman. The suspect reportedly wanted to use the truck to try to find someone who had stolen his car earlier that day.

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