Stranger spotted a baby abandoned by carjacker in scorching heat — then went live on Facebook to find her home
A child getting kidnapped might be a nightmare for a family. A Chicago family had to experience that when a man stole their car and their 7-month-old baby was inside the vehicle when the incident happened. They had no clue about what happened to their little girl and the carjacker had left her outside a church, a little distance away from where he stole the car. It was 92 degrees outside and the baby was outside in the sun strapped to her car seat when a kind stranger noticed her, per the Chicago Sun Times.
The man, Earl Abernathy, was driving his van with no air conditioning and was stuck in a traffic jam on the Near West Side. He had his windows rolled down and as he moved forth a little, he heard a baby crying. He noticed that the baby was strapped to her car seat and had been left on the front steps of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church at 813 W. Roosevelt Road. She was wiggling and trying to set herself free, per Abernathy. He had no idea how the baby got there and who had left her. At first, he felt that the baby had been abandoned by her parents and left on the steps of the church.
"I looked around, saw nobody who was an adult around, but the baby was trying to get out of the car seat. I put the hazards on, jumped out of the car, and ran over to the baby and picked the baby up," Abernathy recounted. He was worried that someone had left the baby alone on such a hot day. "It really broke my heart. Because at first, I didn’t know the whole situation at hand, so I’m just looking at it like, 'Man, they just dumped this baby off with this church. It’s hot, there’s no water, no milk.'" Abernathy didn't know that the baby was in the backseat of the car that was stolen from a Lawndale gas station. A man, Jeremy Ochoa, had stolen the car and left the baby outside the church when he noticed the kid.
People at the church had no idea about what had gone down. So Abernathy picked up the baby and immediately called 911. He also decided to start a Facebook Live. "Crazy s*** just happened to me. I'm riding down the street and I see a baby all by herself. Anybody recognize this baby?... Somebody left this baby off. They're wild as hell," the man said in the live video. He felt that Facebook would be able to reach the parents faster than the police and the decision worked in his favor. The baby's grandmother, Karen Whittington, joined the live and informed the man that they were the baby's relatives. The kid's family was super grateful for the man's help and glad that their little girl was finally found.
Abernathy gave the baby to the police, who reunited her with her family. The man works as a guidance counselor, assistant basketball coach and security guard at Sullivan House High School and pointed out that his work with kids helped him with the situation. "Working around kids, you know, I always want them to feel safe. And they should feel safe around any adult. So it was just like, I just sprang into action, doing my everyday duties." The baby's grandmother told CBS News, "I was so happy. I went to his page and I thanked him so many times." The man shared that he would do something like this again in a heartbeat.