OAKLAND PARK, Fla. – The Broward Sheriff’s Office is searching for a man who they said carjacked a woman and took off with her SUV while her child was still in the backseat.
According to BSO spokeswoman Claudinne Caro, the incident occurred around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday at 850 W. Commercial Blvd. in Oakland Park.
“The preliminary investigation revealed the victims, a mother and her three-year-old daughter, were involved in a car accident with another vehicle,” Caro wrote in a news release. “When the mother exited her car to exchange information with the other driver, an unknown adult male entered the driver side of her vehicle and began to drive away with her child inside.”
Local 10 News spoke with the child’s mother Friday, who asked to remain unidentified and off-camera due to safety reasons.
I went inside the car and was able to hold onto the car and I said, ‘My baby, my baby!’ because my baby was still inside the car,”' she said. “It was a nightmare. It was just crazy and everything out of control.”
According to authorities, the mother grabbed onto the front passenger door of her white SUV and yelled to the carjacker that her daughter was inside the vehicle.
Caro said the woman was dragged by the vehicle before she fell to the ground.
Detectives later obtained surveillance video of the carjacker.
“First, the subject is seen exiting the vehicle with the child in the car seat and leaving her (on) a sidewalk. Another moment captures the subject abandoning the vehicle. The final video captures the subject using the victim’s credit card at a Family Dollar store,” Caro wrote in the news release.
The video then shows two people rushing to attend to the toddler.
Anyone with information about the man’s identity or whereabouts is asked to call BSO Special Victims Unit Detective Azucena Rodriguez at 954-321-4227 or submit a tip through the SaferWatch app.
Those who wish to remain anonymous are urged to contact Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS (8477), online at browardcrimestoppers.org, or dial **TIPS (8477) from any cellphone in the United States.
Crime Stoppers is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information that leads to an arrest.