AURORA | Police said it was “implausible” that a man investigators say stole a car in Aurora with a 6-year-old girl in the backseat was unaware she was there as he drove for about 70 miles toward Fort Collins over about 90 minutes.
The theft and kidnapping resulted in a statewide alert for the missing child as police tracked down the stolen car and girl, who was returned safe at the end of the ordeal.
Police were notified by the girl’s mother at about 9 p.m. Sunday from the 7-Eleven store at East Iliff Avenue and South Havana Street.
The woman said she left the car running with the keys in the car and went inside, for about three minutes.
While inside the store, Abercrombie walked into the parking lot, saw that the car was running without a driver, got in and drove away, according to video surveillance recordings and police reports.
When police arrived, the woman told police her mobile phone was inside the car, and they were able to “ping” the phone and trace it as Abercrombine drove north toward Fort Collins.
Police said the girl was in the back seat of the car, and that video footage revealed that Abercrombie “appeared to look back over his right shoulder and then back out of the parking spot” and then drove away.
For the next 90 minutes, police across the region tracked the phone inside the car, eventually spotting the stolen vehicle in Larimer County along Interstate 25 near Fort Collins.
The sheriff deputy that arrested Abercrombie said at the time of his arrest that, “I didn’t know there was (a child) in there,” according to police reports.
“It is implausible that (Abercrombie) did not notice the 6-year-old child in the back seat of the vehicle during the over an hour and a half that he was driving with the child in the vehicle,” police said in a report and charging affidavit. “The child was noted to be verbal and not have any defect or disabilities that would prevent (the child) from being noticed in the back seat.”
The girl was returned to her mother. Abercrombie was arrested at the time and returned to Aurora.
He is being held at the Arapahoe County Detention Center in lieu of $50,000 bond and faces charges of felony car theft and second-degree kidnapping.
Thank you, law enforcement personnel, for finding the car through the mother’s cell phone.
The criminalooks good in orange prisoner jump suit!
What was he going to do with the car he stole?
Hope thathe kidnapping charge is dropped because he likely did not know the child was in the car. In back seat safety seat?
Mother was probably tired, but should have known to take her perhapsleeping child wither into the store. And not leave her car running.
What is wrong with you? He needs every charge he can get.
Wait! You think he didn’t realize that he had a 6 year old child in the car until he reached Larimer County?
The kidnapping charge should NOT be dropped and the mother should be charged as well. “Reckless endangerment of a child”.
Stupid and irresponsible to leave a child in a running vehicle.
You nailed it. How irresponsible of the mother.
If he doesnt fight the case and plea to something without the kidnapping hes a dummy.. mom shouldn’t be charged im sure this is a lesson she won’t forget.
I certainly hope law enforcement notified CPS so that mother can explain why she thought it was a good idea to leave a 6-yr old child alone at night in a running car while she ran into a convenience store.
He probably didn’t know the child was in the backseat since the car theft seems like a crime of opportunity instead of premeditated, but I think he’d have known she was back there at some point during the drive.