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MESA, AZ – A 24-year-old man was arrested Thursday after he allegedly stole a vehicle with a 2-year-old from the backseat of a QuikTrip near Broadway Road and Stapley Drive last week.
Mesa Police said officers responded to the store on Friday March 5 just before 6 p.m. for reporting a stolen vehicle.
Authorities said the vehicle, a dark blue BMW 328I, had been parked outside the store and was still running with a 2-year-old in the back seat. The boy’s mother told police that she left her son inside the car because he was sleeping and she didn’t want to wake him up. She also left her cell phone inside the car which authorities were later able to track.
QuikTrip surveillance video was used to obtain a description of a suspect.
Mesa Police Department
Authorities were able to locate the cell phone at a 99 Cent store near Gilbert Road and Southern Avenue, where officers found the phone in a backpack, along with other property of the mother.
After reviewing the store’s surveillance video, police said the man who left the backpack was the same man in the QuikTrip surveillance video.
Officers also discovered that the suspect changed clothes at the 99 Cents store after his original clothes were found in the bathroom and throughout the store.
Mesa Police Department
Just before 7 p.m., officers found the abandoned BMW in a neighborhood near the QuikTrip. The child was found inside the vehicle unharmed.
Authorities were ultimately able to identify the suspect as Rodrigo Garcia, 24, with facial recognition and fingerprints.
On Thursday, an employee at the 99 Cents store contacted police to tell them Garcia was in the store and asking him about his backpack.
Officers responded and Garcia was taken into custody.
Police say Garcia admitted to taking the vehicle and said when he saw the 2-year-old in the backseat he abandoned the car in a neighborhood.
Garcia was sentenced to prison on several felony charges, including kidnapping and vehicle burglary.
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