4-year-old girl found safe following Amber Alert after being abducted in stolen car in Rock Island
CHICAGO (CBS) — A 4-year-old Rock Island girl who was abducted when someone stole her mother's car while she was in the back seat on Thursday morning has been found safe.
Rock Island police did not say exactly where or when Blessing J. Aoci was found, but confirmed she has been reunited with her mother. Five teens have been arrested in the case.
Just after 6 a.m., police said Blessing's mother's brown Saturn Outlook was stolen near the intersection of 14th 1/2 Street and 13th Avenue, while the girl was in a booster seat in the back seat.
Rock Island Police Chief Timothy McCloud said Blessing's mother had left the car running while she went inside her home when the car was stolen.
"I would caution everybody to not point fingers at the mother in this case," McCloud said. "This happened in seconds, and that's what we try to tell people, that you can take one child and put them in the car, and then go back to the house to get another child, and in the meantime that car's gone. It is that fast."
Police said the vehicle was found almost 20 minutes later in the area of 8th Street and 15th Avenue, but Blessing was not in the car, and there were no car seats inside.
Around 3 p.m., Rock Island police announced Blessing had been found safe. She was immediately returned to her mother, and while she was in apparent good health, she was also taken to UnityPoint Health Trinity Rock Island Hospital for evaluation.
Police had said they were hoping she might have gotten away and taken shelter in a nearby house.
McCloud said multiple vehicles were stolen overnight in the Quad Cities area near Rock Island, along the Iowa state line, and police did not believe Blessing was kidnapped intentionally.
"We obviously aren't going to rule anything out, and are looking at all possibilities, but at this time, with the number of stolen vehicles that happened overnight, we believe that this was probably inadvertent that the child happened to be in the back seat of the car at the time," he said.
Five people were arrested late Thursday in the abduction. Jaron Bailey-Harris, 18, was charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, and four juvenile suspects were also arrested and charged.
A 16-year-old boy was charged with kidnapping and possession of a stolen vehicle, and another 16-year-old boy, a 15-year-old girl, and a 14-year-old girl were each charged with possession of a stolen vehicle.
