By Conor Wight
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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — One of the latest Minneapolis car thefts presented a nightmare for a mom, watching as a stranger drove away with her 3-month-old baby still in the vehicle.
It happened at about 8:07 p.m. on Tuesday in the parking lot of a North Minneapolis day care. Security footage that the day care provided to WCCO shows a group of people walking on the street near the business about 20 minutes earlier. When the mother goes inside the day care, leaving her car running, one of the people who appeared to be part of that group walks towards the car by themselves. The thief enters the car and drives away with the vehicle exactly 59 seconds after the mother left; she runs outside as the car leaves, throwing what looks like a backpack and a child’s jacket to the ground as she screams.
New video WCCO obtained Friday suggests that the lone person who initially stole the car may have been unaware of the child. A neighbor’s security camera shows the individual getting out of the car in an alley about half a mile from the day care. When he regroups with the other four he was spotted walking with earlier in the evening, one of them exclaims, “There’s a baby,” when they go to get into the vehicle.
The group quickly abandons the car, leaving the infant alone with at least one of the car doors open for an hour.
Minneapolis police, using a number of resources like license plate readers, city cameras and drones, found the infant safe inside the car just a few blocks away about one hour later. Police Chief Brian O’Hara said that they were moments away from issuing an AMBER Alert in conjunction with state officials.
“Last night it [finding the child] did not happen as quickly as I had hoped,” O’Hara said, explaining that a grid search eventually allowed officers to locate the vehicle.
O’Hara’s department is dealing with an uptick in car thefts. In the first three months of 2026, police reported 1,548 stolen cars, about 336 more than the same time period in 2025. According to O’Hara, drivers had left their keys in the car in about 620 of those cases.
“I’d probably say auto theft is the biggest crime challenge that we have at this point this year,” O’Hara said. “It is frustrating because a large share is entirely preventable.”
A woman connected to the day care, who asked to stay anonymous, said that she is grateful that mother and child are safe. She also had compassionate words for the alleged thief and the group he was with; believing they could be teenagers or young adults, she lamented the fact that they were left to make what she called negative choices.
“The parents and the city of Minneapolis need to create programs for children to keep them busy and running,” the woman told WCCO.
O’Hara acknowledged that various groups within the city are working on preventative measures. He believes that a group of teenagers who are new to this kind of crime is now getting involved. He said in some instances, there appears to be competition between different groups on social media.
Lamenting the opportunistic crimes where thieves take vehicles with keys left inside, O’Hara also said that officers are tracking newer and more sophisticated methods. A locksmith showed WCCO how a device that allows a generic key fob to operate a vehicle works in seconds or minutes. Minneapolis police have found the devices in stolen cars, and earlier this year, O’Hara said that people have robbed locksmiths of the equipment.
“We know those have happened. We know we’ve arrested at least one young person within the last month that had this [device],” O’Hara said.
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