A good Samaritan rescued a 7-month-old baby girl who was abandoned in the summer heat in Chicago after a carjacking, authorities said Thursday.
Earl Abernathy, 33, was stuck in traffic on July 3 when he heard a baby crying and saw the little girl stranded on the steps of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, the New York Post reported.
“I saw the baby like, trying to wiggle [her] way out of the car seat and it tipped over,” Abernathy told a local media outlet. “So, I just threw the hazards on, jumped out, ran over there [and] got the baby!”
The baby girl was in the backseat of a vehicle that was stolen from a gas station earlier that day, before the carjacker left her in the 92-degree heat, according to a Chicago Sun Times report.
Abernathy quickly called police and then went on Facebook Live in the hopes of notifying the little girl’s family.
“It was crazy,” Abernathy said. “Within minutes, the grandma had inboxed me like, ‘That’s my grandbaby!’ And then the auntie inboxed like, ‘That’s my niece!’”
The infant was transported to a nearby hospital for a wellness check-up and was ultimately reunited with her family, according to the report.
“We were all out of our minds,” the baby’s grandma Karen Whittington told the Sun-Times. “Everyone is OK, and we [are] glad she’s found.”
Jeremy Ochoa, 38, was arrested for the carjacking and is facing charges for kidnapping and vehicular hijacking, according to the report.
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