'Miracle' Baby Abducted in Carjacking Safe, But Police Chief is 'Angry'

DETROIT, MI – A 3-month-old baby who was kidnapped when she was left in a running vehicle stolen from outside a Detroit mini-market about 1 a.m. Sunday — and whose father didn’t report her missing until two hours later — was found unharmed on a porch, where her abductors apparently left her after an Amber Alert was issued, police said.

In a news conference announcing that the baby, Dakota Grimes, was found safely in her car seat on a porch on the 16600 block of Lakepointe Monday morning, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said he was “angry” with Dakota’s father, a 30-year-old man who wasn’t named in media reports.

"I will tell you and I explained it just this way to him, I said, 'I'm angry with you. Why would you be out at 1 a.m. with a child?'" Craig said, according to a report in the Detroit Free Press.

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"Now I understand he did drop the mother off, but it was not just so much being out at 1 a.m., it was the fact that he left the child in the car with it running,” Craig said. “That's a recipe for what? A bad situation."

Police said Dakota’s father left his white Chevrolet Impala running outside of the Whittier Mini Market about 12:54 a.m. He exited the store to find it stolen, but didn’t report his child missing until about 3 a.m. Dakota’s father, who isn’t a suspect, reportedly explained to police that he didn’t report the abduction right away because he was trying to find his daughter.

Gary Zielinski, 65, told The Detroit News he found the baby about 7:15 a.m., when he arrived at his contractor friend Ray Harper’s home before they began their workday. Houses on either side of Harper’s home are vacant, and if Dakota had been left at either of them, she might not have been located so quickly.

“It’s a miracle they picked the right house,” Zielinski told The News.

Little Dakota was cold — it was about 39 degrees outside when she was found — but unharmed. She was taken to the hospital for a through checkup.

Police are still looking for the vehicle — license number CPG8598 — and the three suspects. The car has heavy damage to the right rear, police said. The right rear of the vehicle is heavily damaged.

Image credit: Detroit Police Department