SUV stolen with baby girl in back seat in Harlem; cops talk thief into surrendering

A father who left his 2-year-old daughter behind in an SUV stolen from a Harlem street also left his cell phone — enabling cops to use it to track the vehicle and eventually talk the thief into surrendering.

The anguished dad, rushing to drop off his toddler at a pre-school on Tuesday, suffered a parent’s worst nightmare when the thief drove off in his double-parked car — with his other child inside.

Cops used a cell phone left behind in the SUV to track the vehicle to the Upper East Side and nabbed the thief just 30 minutes later.

“He told us where he was and that he was sorry,” a police source said.

Cops and officials at the Chloe Day School and Wellness Center said the hurried father was only in the school a couple of minutes — just long enough for the bandit to jump behind the wheel of the dad’s idling vehicle and take off with the 2-year-old strapped in the backseat — shortly after 8:30 a.m.

Parents dropping off their kids are required to sign in, according to Sanayi Beckless-Canton, the school’s director and founder. The father also requested information regarding an upcoming graduation ceremony, Beckless-Canton said.

“He said, ‘I have the car double-parked,’” she recounted. “In the span of maybe 2 minutes, the car was gone. He was like, ‘The car is gone!’ I was like, “What do you mean? You were only in here for a minute.'”

Officials at the school at Frederick Douglass Boulevard and W. 134th Street immediately called police, and Beckless-Canton reviewed surveillance footage owned by her building’s management company.

She said the video showed the thief on the other side of W. 134th St.,where he appeared to be staking out the block, before entering the victim’s car and immediately driving off.

“When the father turned around and walked through the door to hand off the child, the guy came from across the street and jumped in the car and he maybe was there for a few seconds and then he just drove off,” Beckless-Canton said.

“He had a blue hoodie on with gray pants. You could see him on the camera looking around. He looked suspicious.

“I am shocked by this. It wasn’t until I saw the video, I was like, ‘Is he staking the place out?'” she added. “That’s what it looked like he was doing. He looked suspicious.”

Beckless-Canton described the distraught dad as a model father who was active.

“It was a very unfortunate situation,” she said. “He’s such a great dad. I felt so horrible for him … He participates in everything. He’s always on it, and I was like, ‘The one day you’re not on it.’

Beckless-Canton called the girl’s mother, who started screaming.

“I was like, ‘Calm down, we called the cops,'” she said. “The cops came very quickly, thank God, and they were very helpful.”

Police pulled the driver over at the corner of E. 71st St. and First Ave. on the Upper East Side around 9:30 a.m. and took him into custody without incident.

Suspect Jakyrie Grant, 34, was charged with kidnapping, possession of stolen property, acting in a manner injurious to a child, unlawful imprisonment and unauthorized use of a vehicle, cops said.

The girl was unharmed, according to police.

The family, through the school, declined to comment.

Beckless-Canton said the girl was reunited with the parents. Her brother, who was not told about the incident, had a normal day, she added.

The scare came just two days after a Bronx thief stole a minivan with a 6-month-old baby in the back.

On Monday, Victor Matos was arraigned in Bronx Criminal Court for kidnapping, grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property and acting in a manner injurious to a child for snagging a minivan on Father’s Day, cops said.

The suspect stole the idling vehicle around 11:30 a.m. Sunday near E. 146th St. and Third Ave. in Mott Haven while the baby’s mother ran into a bakery to pick up a cake.

Realizing there was an infant in the back seat, Matos dumped the car on Casanova St. in the Bronx. Prosecutors allege that even after realizing the baby was onboard, he made no effort to return the child, leaving the infant in the backseat.

NYPD officers and detectives launched a frantic search for the stolen minivan. Within a few hours, Matos was in police custody.

Beckless-Canton said the Harlem incident was a wake-up call.

“They left their car idling and somebody took it,” she said. “Friday we will have a Zoom call and an open session for families to come in to talk about what happened and what we can do to make the space safer. You gotta lock your cars.”

She said Chloe Day School is a privately operated and city-funded pre-K that opened in September. It currently serves 38 students but has a total capacity of 78. The school previously asked the city to designate a special zone outside so parents don’t have to double park, she noted.

“For me, the block has always been pretty safe,” Beckless-Canton observed. “So I was shocked by what I heard. I don’t know if things are getting worse or if this is a random act. We know we are just going to have to pay attention.”