Report: Chicago Man Accused of Stealing Car, Kidnapping Children Still Inside

Chicago man Marcos Contreras, 19, appeared at a bail hearing Sunday after allegedly stealing a Chevy Equinox carrying three children in February, CWB Chicago reported.

The incident occurred on the evening of February 23 in the 800 block of West Superior Street when a DoorDash delivery driver entered the Westline Food Junction store to pick up an order. He was with his four children, and his 11-year-old first went to retrieve the food while the father stayed in the car with his other three children, aged 3, 5, and 12, said Cook County Prosecutor Tom LaHood.

When the 11-year-old did not return in a timely fashion, the driver entered the store himself, and that is when Contreras stole the Equinox with the minors inside, LaHood asserted.

After driving down the road, he made the children exit the vehicle and left them on a curb in frigid February weather, CWB Chicago noted. Accuweather shows the high temperature that day in the Windy City was 26 degrees while the low temperature was just 18 degrees, and the children were eventually found by relatives. The vehicle was allegedly discovered adjacent to Contrearas’s residence after officers followed the location of one of the children’s cell phones that was left inside the Equinox, CWB Chicago reported. It is unclear when the vehicle was located, and online inmate records show Contreras was booked on Sunday.

He faces charges of kidnapping and possession of a stolen vehicle in connection to the incident, and Judge Barbara Dawkings ordered he be “held in lieu of $100,000 bail,” according to CWB Chicago.

“The defendant chose himself when he took the running car. He chose himself when he abandoned these children on the city street. He chose himself when he took the car to his house,” Dawkins said, per CWB Chicago. “He just abandoned the children.”

Carjackings have seen an alarming increase in Democrat Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Chicago. There had been 5869  from the beginning of the year through June 19 – which is a 40 percent increase from last year’s 4198 carjacking by June 19, the Chicago Police Department’s crime statistics show. The jump is a 50 percent increase from 2020.