This is why you should never leave a baby/child unattended in the car... even for a moment

SLED, FBI join North Charleston police in missing baby caseMother of missing child at Tuesday's press conference.
Angel Miguel Perez

NORTH CHARLESTON, SC (WCSC) - The State Law Enforcement Division and the FBI Tuesday joined the efforts to find a baby taken out of a car in a North Charleston post office parking lot Monday evening.

The FBI issued a $20,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the kidnapper. Police are asking people to be vigilant and take note of people who have a newborn now, but did not before Monday. "There is someone with a child that didn't before yesterday and I think that's important," said North Charleston Police Spokesman Spencer Pryor.

According to police and the mother, the baby has a red mark on his forehead that gets redder, darker when he cries.

Investigators say the baby's mother left her North Charleston home Monday afternoon and went to a medical clinic. She then went shopping at Walmart and Ross department stores. Police believe the abductor may have been watching the mother. "It's always a possibility," Pryor said. "That's why we're hoping that if there's someone who saw them within that two and a half hour time frame, perhaps may have saw someone at this location or someone getting in a car directly behind the victim."

The car from which the baby was abducted had dark, tinted windows, so the baby's presence would not have been immediately noticeable.

SLED issued an Amber Alert Monday afternoon for one-month-old Angel Miguel Perez. Perez was taken from a car outside a post office on Rivers Avenue around 5:00 PM, according to North Charleston Police.

Perez's mother told police she left her son in a running car while she went inside to drop off mail. When she returned, the child was gone, she told police.

Witnesses told police they saw a black woman running from the post office parking lot with a baby in her arms.

The suspect is described as a short, stocky black woman wearing a blue and white striped shirt and boots. She may be in her mid-twenties, and is about 5'1" and 175 pounds. The suspect may be in a gray or silver Honda Accord with a rear spoiler.

Perez is a Hispanic boy wearing a blue shirt and pants. He weighs 11 pounds and has dark hair and dark eyes. Anyone with information should contact North Charleston Police at 554-5700.

Police have created a tip email address: [email protected].

The following tip lines have been activated as well and will operate 24 hours a day until the missing child is found: 697-4140, 697-5892, 697-6026, 697-7113 and 697-7777.

Re: This is why you should never leave a baby/child unattended in the car... even for a moment

OMG that is awful. I would DIE. And i agree, i wouldnt leave him not even for a moment

Re: This is why you should never leave a baby/child unattended in the car... even for a moment

I just saw this on the news earlier! How sad!

Re: This is why you should never leave a baby/child unattended in the car... even for a moment

I am going to fess up. I have done this. I left AJ in the back strapped in the warm car on a cold rainy day as I ran out and dropped off mail. But I can say that I locked up the car with the keys with me (I have auto start). The whole time I was watching the car. It took me literally less than 15secs to RUN out, yank a door open, shove my mail in and RUN back (door never even had a chance to close).

the whole time I was terrified of what would happen to AJ. I never took it for granted for a second.

I just did it that once and I STILL feel guilty about it. Its one of the reasons we moved into a convertible so I could take her OUT easier and with me.

These stories are so sad.

Re: This is why you should never leave a baby/child unattended in the car... even for a moment

I have to admit that I leave DD in the car when I use the outdoor drop off box at the library. I park right next to them and lock the car anyway. I never thought of the fact that someone may be following and watching for a chance to grab her so now I'll stop doing it and bring her with me.

Re: This is why you should never leave a baby/child unattended in the car... even for a moment

that is so sad that poor mother!!!!

i always think of this at the gas station. when i go inside to pay, i always take my keys and lock my car if DS is in the car. i mean seriously - am i supposed to carry my 33 lb toddler while im pumping gas???
this is why i try and go and get gas when DH is home with him so i dont have to worry about leaving him in the car - even if its for less than 1 min.
its so terrible, but its the reality of the world we live it --- ppl can be such monsters

Message edited 11/24/2009 6:21:57 PM.

Re: This is why you should never leave a baby/child unattended in the car... even for a moment

When Aidan was about 3 or 4 I left him in the car and ran into a store., (He fell asleep and I didn't want to wake him)

someone called the cops and I must have been in the store longer than I thought b/c a police officer was there waiting for me when I got out.

Suffice to say the humiliation ALONE taught me to never to do that again... To this day, I get sick when I think about it.

Re: This is why you should never leave a baby/child unattended in the car... even for a moment

omg that is terrible.

The only time I have left Katie in the car was going in and out of the dry cleaners carrying DH's suits. Its too much for me to bring her in, etc. BUT - You literally pull up and the door is right there, you take maybe 4 steps to the counter and its an all glass front. I also lock the car up and take the keys with me. Thats the only time I have ever done it.

Re: This is why you should never leave a baby/child unattended in the car... even for a moment

It is pretty stupid to leave your kid in the car with it running.

I will admit I have left DS in the car but I turn off the car and lock it. And it is only to do quick things like throw mail in the drop box, run into the house to get something. I would never leave him in the car and run into a store to shop.

Re: This is why you should never leave a baby/child unattended in the car... even for a moment

How awful.

Re: This is why you should never leave a baby/child unattended in the car... even for a moment

Re: This is why you should never leave a baby/child unattended in the car... even for a moment

That is so sad!




I wouldn't do this but I always worry that DH would do something like this not thinking...

Re: This is why you should never leave a baby/child unattended in the car... even for a moment

terribly sad the only time i ever leave dd in the car is when the car is in the driveway and i have to either unload the car and put stuff on the front stoop or grab something from inside the house and run right back out to the car.

Re: This is why you should never leave a baby/child unattended in the car... even for a moment

Posted by Xelindrya



I am going to fess up. I have done this. I left AJ in the back strapped in the warm car on a cold rainy day as I ran out and dropped off mail. But I can say that I locked up the car with the keys with me (I have auto start). The whole time I was watching the car. It took me literally less than 15secs to RUN out, yank a door open, shove my mail in and RUN back (door never even had a chance to close).

the whole time I was terrified of what would happen to AJ. I never took it for granted for a second.

I just did it that once and I STILL feel guilty about it. Its one of the reasons we moved into a convertible so I could take her OUT easier and with me.

These stories are so sad.

Re: This is why you should never leave a baby/child unattended in the car... even for a moment

Well I will give a different side to the story. I HAVE to leave one of my kids in the car while I take the other one into the house as I have twins. I cannot get one out of the carseat while i hold the other. Hopefully, once they can walk this will not be an issue but for now this is how it is if I am home alone with them. I never leave them unattended in the car while I "run in" somewhere.

Re: This is why you should never leave a baby/child unattended in the car... even for a moment

this is such a fear of mine.

when I lived in an apt, I had 2 kids during the day to get in and out. what a pita, but i opened and closed that double stroller all day long.

i could not leave babysitting kid outside, and i wasn't going to leave my baby...so stroller in and out like 3 times a freaking day. it was the only way to be safe.

it only takes a second.

i know dh has left him in car while running back into house...with doors locked. it caused a lot of fights...

Re: This is why you should never leave a baby/child unattended in the car... even for a moment

Re: This is why you should never leave a baby/child unattended in the car... even for a moment

Re: This is why you should never leave a baby/child unattended in the car... even for a moment

Re: This is why you should never leave a baby/child unattended in the car... even for a moment

side by side stroller..unstrapped mine first since he never leaned forward...unstrapped other.

picked babysitting kid up, threw on hip...bent down and picked up my kid since he was lighter.

how my apt was, there was no way to see car from door at all.

was so happy when they started walking...and we moved again.