MIAMI – A girl told police she woke up on Saturday morning and noticed a strange man was in the driver’s seat of her mother’s rental 2021 silver Nissan Versa, records show. She was one of three children in the car when it was stolen in Miami.
She also told police the stranger then looked at her and said, “I got something for you,” and took off his shirt, got out of the car, and ran away, according to the arrest report. Police officers later identified the kidnapper as Noel Castro.
Officer Kiara Delva, a spokeswoman for the Miami Police Department, released a statement Saturday afternoon reporting Castro, 26, stole the car with the children inside just south of the Little Havana neighborhood.
“The mother parked her vehicle along the side of the street and left her children, ages 1, 10, and 12 asleep inside the vehicle for just a few minutes,” Delva wrote. “When she returned moments later, she discovered that her vehicle had been stolen.”
Detectives found surveillance video showing Castro getting in the Nissan Versa and driving away outside of a motel along Tamiami Trail and Southwest 23 Avenue, according to the arrest report.
Castro later abandoned the Nissan near Beacon Boulevard and Southwest Sixth Street, and after setting a perimeter police officers arrested him near West Flagler Street and Southwest 27 Avenue, according to police.
“We are thankful that the children were unharmed,” Delva wrote.
Castro, who was born in Havana, Cuba, confessed in Spanish, according to police. He was facing charges of kidnapping, grand theft vehicle, burglary of an occupied conveyance, and child abuse with no great bodily harm.
Court records show Castro also had a pending case for resisting an officer without violence to his person and was out on probation for aggravated battery of a pregnant victim.
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