By: Richard L. Smith
Heroic efforts by police in the Essex County town of Orange had cops rescue a baby from a vehicle that was stolen after the child’s mother reportedly left the running car unattended this evening.
It happened just before 5:35 p.m. near the intersection of Joyce Street and Scotland Road.
Orange Police officers rushed to the area after they received reports of a carjacking in progress.
When cops arrived, they were met with a frantic woman who told them that a thief made off with her silver Hyundai Elantra with reported NJ license plate numbers “U74-NXG”.
There was no weapon shown and the vehicle was never carjacked. The woman reportedly made it easy for the thief.
To make matters more intense, the woman’s 8-month-old child was in the car's back seat.
Authorities notified neighboring towns to look out for the vehicle while Orange Police locked down streets in the 2.2-mile city surrounded by West Orange, East Orange, and South Orange.
“When we first pulled onto the block, the car was just sitting there in the middle of the street. Then we came back maybe like 45 minutes later to see all the police.
If I had known a baby was in there, I would’ve stopped”. -Witness
Residents in the area of Conover Terrace and Lincoln Avenue notified RLS Media when they observed the driver jump from a vehicle and run from the scene.
About a dozen police officers swarmed the neighborhood and found the child in the car's back seat unharmed.
Authorities are looking for the suspect responsible for the car theft at this time.