MESA, AZ – A 24-year-old man was arrested on Thursday after he allegedly stole a vehicle with a 2-year-old child in the back seat at a QuikTrip near Broadway Road and Stapley Drive last week.
Police in Mesa said officers responded to the store just before 6pm on Friday, March 5, for reports of a stolen vehicle.
According to authorities, the vehicle, a dark blue BMW 328I, parked outside the shop and was still walking with a 2-year-old in the back seat. The boy’s mother told police she left her son in the car because he was asleep and she did not want to wake up. She also left her cellphone in the car which could later be located by the authorities.
Observation video from the QuikTrip was used to get a description of a suspect.
Mesa Police Station
Authorities were able to locate the cellphone at a 99 Cents store near Gilbert Road and Southern Avenue, where officers found the phone in a backpack, as well as other property belonging to the mother.
After police checked the store’s surveillance video, police said the man who left the backpack behind is the same man from the QuikTrip surveillance video.
Officers also discovered that the suspect’s clothes had changed in the 99 Cents store after his original clothes were found in the bathroom and throughout the store.
Mesa Police Station
Just before 7pm, officers found the BMW abandoned in a neighborhood near the QuikTrip. The child was found unharmed in the vehicle.
Authorities were finally able to identify the suspect as 24-year-old Rodrigo Garcia with facial recognition and fingerprints.
On Thursday, an employee of the 99 Cents store contacted police and said Garcia was in the store and asked about his backpack.
Officers responded and Garcia was arrested.
According to police, Garcia admitted taking the vehicle and said when he saw the 2-year-old in the back seat, he left the car in a neighborhood.
Garcia was jailed on several charges of kidnapping and burglary of vehicles.