An Oregon car thief who discovered a small child in the backseat of the SUV he was about to steal over the weekend drove back to the child’s mother, and chewed her out for leaving the child unattended, before driving off with the vehicle, according to police.
“He actually lectured the mother for leaving the child in the car and threatened to call the police on her,” Officer Matt Henderson, a Beaverton police spokesman tells The Oregonian.
The mother had reportedly left the car outside the entrance of a meat market — with the engine running and the doors unlocked — before going inside to buy a gallon of milk and some meat, Henderson said.
A store employee who helped the woman said she was only in the market for a few minutes before the thief began backing the SUV out of its parking space.
The thief quickly realized a four-year-old child was seated in a booster seat behind him, U-turned in an adjacent parking lot and returned to the mother to berate her for leaving the child in the car.
“He orders her to take the kid out of the car, and she does,” Henderson said.
The suspect, believed to be a man in his 20s or 30s, then proceeded to drive off in the stolen car.
“Obviously, we’re thankful he brought the little one back and had the decency to do that,” Henderson said.