A baby was discovered safe after briefly being missing when the car the infant was in was stolen near a Chipotle restaurant in Fontana Monday afternoon.
Fontana Police Department officers were dispatched shortly before 2 p.m. to the Chipotle at 10515 Sierra Ave. after the vehicle’s owner reported a black man had jumped into her car with child inside the vehicle, according to a police news release.
The car had been left unattended “for a short time” and the keys had been left in the ignition, the release stated.
The vehicle was described as a silver or gray 2013 Kia Optima. It had tinted windows all around and stock wheels and rims, police said.
Police spokesman Jay Sayegh said the car was found and a suspect was taken into custody. The child is OK, Sayegh said.
Police issued the news release about the missing child just before 3 p.m.; Sayegh told KTLA about 3:15 p.m. the car and child had been found.
The suspect, 45-year-old Christopher Tanpinu Agbaosi, of Rialto, was arrested without incident after abandoning the car in Norco, an updated police news release stated.
He was found a short distance away from the vehicle, with the child in his arms, according to authorities.
The baby appeared to be uninjured, but was taken to a hospital as a precautionary measure.
A Police Department Facebook post initially described the car thief as a black man between 35 and 40 years old, possibly a transient. The baby was described as 7 weeks old.
