'You Got A Baby Sitting On Your Porch:' Missing 3-Month-Old Found Safe
DETROIT (WWJ) - A missing 3-month-old girl has been found safe Monday morning after a harrowing night in Detroit.
Police say Dakota Grimes was found strapped in her car seat on a porch on Lakepoint Street in Detroit about an hour after an Amber Alert was issued in connection with her disappearance.
Gary Zelinski found the baby when he arrived at his friend Raymond Harper's home.
"I came to his house to go to work," said Zelinski. "We were supposed to be at work at 8 o'clock, I told him I'd be here at 7 o'clock, so it was about 7:15 when I walked on the porch and I knocked on the door and I looked down and I seen the baby sitting there - I went to his back window because he wasn't answering the door, he came to the door and I said 'you got a baby sitting on your porch' and that's when we brought her into the house."
According to authorities, Grimes' father stopped at a party store, near Harper and Whittier on the city's east side, at around 1 a.m with Dakota sleeping in the back seat of his running car. He left the baby in the car while he went into the store and when he came out of the store the car and the baby were gone.
"Why would you be out at 1 a.m with a child?" said Detroit Police Chief James Craig. "Not so much being out at 1 o'clock in the morning, was the fact that, he left the child in the car with the car running.
That's a recipe for what? A bad situation."
Dakota was taken to a hospital for observation and was reported in stable condition.
Late Monday afternoon, police said the stolen car — a 2006 Chevy Impala — found in the area of Kelly and East State Fair in Harper Woods
Police said one person was in custody, but they were still looking for the driver.
Craig earlier said they were searching for three suspects, all black males, and that the driver may have his hair in braids.
State police and the FBI have joined the investigation.
