A brave nine-year-old girl carried her baby brother to safety after a man stole the car the kids had been left in and dumped them many blocks away.
A Las Vegas mother of five, whose car was stolen with two of her kids inside, shared the horrifying ordeal that happened on Tuesday, October 25, at around 8:30 pm outside a 7-Eleven on Cheyenne Avenue in Las Vegas.
Karen Quinn, the mother, said that she was driving her car, a Dodge SUV, and she had her daughter and baby boy, nine-years-old and 11 months, when she stopped to withdraw money from an ATM.
She told the police that she left the car engine running and locked her kids inside the vehicle as she dashed inside the 7-Eleven to use the ATM. When she got inside, Quinn noticed the suspect and locked eyes with him as he was sitting at a slot machine. He seemed as if he was in a bad mood.
The suspect, who police identified as Mario Estrada, 38, got up, walked over to her SUV, and peeked inside. When she saw this, she started running towards the car, but Estrada had already opened the door (which was supposedly locked) and gotten inside. The store clerk said he heard her screaming for her children.
Quinn said she tried to grab Estrada when he opened the door and instead grabbed his sweater. As he put the car in reverse, the wheel rolled over Quinn’s foot, and she screamed and told him that her kids were still in the car. She continued to plead with him to release her kids and take the car, but the man quickly sped off.
Her motherly instincts kicked in, and in an attempt to save her babies, she started running after the SUV on foot. She ran after the car until she could no longer continue the chase.
According to the police, Estrada finally pulled over at Decatur Boulevard, released the children, and drove off.
Amazingly, Quinn’s nine-year-old daughter carried her 11-month-old brother and found her way back to the convenience store. She walked five blocks with no shoes on and her brother in her arms.
Quinn, who was extremely relieved to get the good news that the children were safe, rushed back to the store to get them. The police had called Quinn and told her that her children were found. She said that her kids were traumatized by the ordeal, and her nine-year-old was left sore from walking barefoot and carrying the baby.
Another police officer spotted Quinn’s stolen Dodge on the I-15 and started pursuing the car. The high-speed chase ended in a road accident as Estrada rammed into another car on the I-15 and Charleston intersection.
The driver of the other car did not suffer any injuries. Estrada got out of the wreckage and tried to flee on foot, but the police quickly caught up with him and arrested him. Authorities took him for a check-up in the hospital and then booked him into a jail in the city.
Estrada faces multiple charges, including kidnapping, grand theft, and child abuse.
