A crime that ends with no one being harmed is a good thing, but a Detroit family spent several agonizing hours waiting to find that out.
Three-month-old Dakota Grimes is back at home after the 2006 Chevrolet Impala she was riding in was stolen from the parking lot of a eastside Detroit convenience store just before 1 a.m. this morning, according to the Detroit Free Press.
The baby’s 30-year-old father had entered the Harper Avenue store, leaving the vehicle running with the child inside. When he came back out, both were gone.
The early lesson here? Don’t leave your baby in a running, unattended vehicle. 2006 Impalas can be replaced (in fact, quite easily!), but kids can’t.
Detroit police issued an Amber Alert after a number of delays, including the father providing an incorrect license plate number, but car and baby eventually parted. The car remained on the lam, but Dakota — still strapped in her car seat — appeared on the front porch of a Lakepointe Street home at 8:30 a.m.
The child, seemingly unharmed, was taken to hospital as a precaution.
Police Chief James Craig offered some sage parenting advice to the father, which he shared with the media.
“I will tell you and I explained it just this way to him, I said, ‘I’m angry with you. Why would you be out at 1 a.m. with a child?'” Craig told the Detroit Free Press. “Now I understand he did drop the mother off, but it was not just so much being out at 1 a.m., it was the fact that he left the child in the car with it running. That’s a recipe for what? A bad situation.”
The white Impala (license CPG8598) is still being hunted, along with three suspects, but thankfully there’s no child missing with it.
So, if you’re driving around with the little one and the hankering for chips or soda gets too great, please, go home instead or take your kid into the store. There’s nice colors in there, and usually some tinny music.
[Image: Wikipedia]
They should have kept the kid and given the Impala back.
No doubt. At 3 months old, might be a good time for this baby to be placed with someone else before the biological parents can wreak havoc on her upbringing.
+1
You calling this guy a bad parent because he made a (very stupid) mistake? Parenting is not as easy as you might think. If you think it is, perhaps you should come up with an app or something to help us new parents out.
I’m calling this guy a bad parent because he left his 3 month old in an unlocked car while he went into a liquor store in one of the worst neighborhoods in America.
Agree. I would find this inexcusable in Beverly Hills, much less Detroit’s east side. The only thing forgivable is getting the license plate wrong.
If the mother cares, she’d kick the bum to the curb.
@Idemmu
Please don’t excuse this terrible parent’s behavior. Shouldn’t need an app for the following logic.
Leave infant alone = bad
Be present with infant = good
Will this help your parenting? Even dogs know better than this.
“Parenting is not as easy as you might think. If you think it is, perhaps you should come up with an app or something to help us new parents out.”
I have two kids. You don’t need an app to avoid this kind of full-retard parenting, but in case you haven’t picked up on the salient points, here’s some lessons that could be on the app:
1. Don’t enter into parenthood if you cannot handle it.
2. Don’t put your kid’s life in jeopardy to satisfy some base craving of yours.
Having an infant out at 1AM is suspect. Leaving her in the car for a 7-11 stop is doubly so. Leaving the car running while doing so is inexcusably stupid. I’m too cynical to believe the bad decisions will end here.
“Parenting is not as easy as you might think”
Not leaving infants in running cars at 1 am in da hood is not an example of parenting be it good or bad, it is a people fail of epic proportions.
It sounds like an easy solution, but that mentality has led to a huge number of kids in foster homes. As Idemmu said, it was a very stupid mistake. The parents need training and/or counseling. Also, we need a lot more parents to take the training to be foster parents.
You’re so right Erik ;
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Foster Parenting can be a total b*tch but it’s also very rewarding .
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-Nate
It might be a good time to figure out what’s gone wrong with an economy that leaves a family with 2 working parents on opposite shifts so there’s someone to care for the child and shopping (since we don’t know I’m going to say “for diapers”) at a high priced convenience store after hours the only option.
I agree with a lot of this and think it speaks well of you to view it in such understanding terms. Running under the assumptions that this father had no choice but to bring his daughter out to a convenience store in the middle of the night for essentials, the act of leaving the child in an unlocked running car is difficult to fathom or justify. Also, honestly, the role of intelligent family planning cannot be ignored. If I were in this kind of financial position I simply wouldn’t bring an innocent into the mix. We consciously planned our family, waiting until we had the means and mental wherewithal to handle it.
I was going to say the same thing – Impalas of that era are complete junk. My brother in law who drove anything without regard to its reputation made the decision to buy one of these. Awful. Run, don’t walk from these. If you carry four adults this is a car without any rear seat foot room – the driver will pin your feet to the seat and floor – I know – my brother in law did just that by driving it.
What are these parents thinking (or not)? this same thing seems to happen weekly somewhere in the US. Common sense, people!
They aren’t. This child has terrible parents who think more about snacks and cigs than their children.
Generalizing of course, but I see it a lot.
So they got into a car which illuminates upon door opening, and didn’t notice the baby and car seat in the back?
What are you going to do with a plain white Impala anyway, joyride and burn it?
Leaving a kid in a running, unlocked car? Normally that’s reserved for Sebring/200 owners.
“So they got into a car which illuminates upon door opening, and didn’t notice the baby and car seat in the back?”
Not necessarily. I know people that, for reasons I can’t understand, always keep the interior lights of their cars off: my sister-in-law did it with her Sienna, then her Camry, and now her Grand Cherokee. My mother does it too. When I try to get a logical explanation from them as to why they do that, they won’t give me one. Not saying this was the case here, but it could have been.
They should realize there’s a security advantage (however slight) to seeing the car illuminated before you get in, if you have some dude in the back seat creepin.
Trust me, I’ve tried…totally goes over their heads…set in their ways, I guess.
“I know people that, for reasons I can’t understand, always keep the interior lights of their cars off:”
For privacy reasons, perhaps? Some people don’t want to announce to the world when they open their car doors.
What privacy are they gaining by getting out of a dark car? They might make people suspicious enough to come take a look after they walk away, and that’s about all.
Lights turned off to not wake the kid who’s circumstances make you feel guilt and inadequacy? Not decisions I ever had to make, but … my privilege isn’t universal. Or, maybe he dropped his wife off at a party and swung by the convenience store to get more beer. Lack of info goes so many ways. What story do you want to promote on this fragile framework?
Consider the guilt and inadequacy -before- having a child. It occurs to me the best solution is for these sorts of people to not have children.
Condoms gonna cost you a lot less than a baby will.
You never broke a rubber? sorry about your small hands dude.
You’re on the ball today, let’s get real real personal.
I turn the interior lights on my Voyager off because I leave the back door open when I’m selling at swap meets and don’t want to drain the battery.
I realize that probably doesn’t apply here.
No dome/lights timeout on a Voyager after 20 mins? And what’re you sellin at the swap meet?
I leave my interior lights off for a few reasons.
The first is that my eyes prefer the darkness once they’re adjusted to it. I find bright white artificial light very unpleasant at night. I have never had any problem with visibility in low-light conditions, except for those short moments immediately following exposure to bright artificial lights.
The second is that I prefer the privacy of a dark cabin. Maybe I’m more self-conscious than most, but I don’t like being on display.
The third is that I’d rather be able to continue to easily see what’s happening outside and around my vehicle when I enter or exit it at night. The vehicle’s surroundings seem like a far greater source of danger than the few feet around me inside a container of metal that was locked and alarmed right up until I pushed the button and flashed the exterior lights.
For those extremely rare times that I need more illumination than the ambient night light provides, I’ll turn the interior lights on myself.
I could probably tolerate a very dim interior light toward the red end of the spectrum. But the dome lights in cars do not come close to meeting that criteria.
I guess some eyes are just different. I can’t understand why most people prefer bright artificial light, and then complain about not having enough light in situations where I can see fine. A couple of shaded lamps with two dim bulbs are all I want in my living room at night.
As you can imagine, I despise the new bright white and directional LED outdoor lights that are being installed in place of the traditional yellowy-orange lights.
I walked home from my buddy’s late last night, and used the path along the dark, unlit side of the river. It was a beautiful warm night with a clear sky full of stars, nice moon, multiple visible planets, and the glow of the downtown city lights in the distance, across the river. I was constantly hearing animals moving about in the bushes and even saw flashes of a couple. I find the porcupines to be especially cute. I enjoyed the peacefulness of it all, but I imagine some are uncomfortable in that situation and prefer looking at concrete under the supposed protection of a bright artificial light instead. I want to see farther than that.
“What are you going to do with a plain white Impala anyway, joyride and burn it?”
Sell it to a chop shop (sans baby, of course.)
For $79.95 and a Red Dog? Lol.
I’m guessing it’s more likely they definitely saw it, but in the adrenaline rush of the moment they were more interested in getting the hell out of there, and said the hell with the kid. After a few hours to calm down and realize what they had gotten themselves into they (very wisely) decided they better give the kid back.
+1 to what Roberto stated. I’ve known people who, either intentionally or otherwise, keep the interior dome light off. Why? Not even going to try to guess.
With any luck, the Impala will stay missing.
I can just imagine this guy’s train of thought as he exited the store to find the car missing. Something along the lines of uh-oh woman is gonna kill me.
I’m guessing this man has more of a handcar of thought than a train of thought.
That neighborhood is no bueno at noon, nevermind 1 AM. It’s the kind of place you get shot while getting shot.
We had a family with the last name Grimes where I came from. They’d do something like this too.
It’s a Great Time In Detroit.
Dan Gilbert has about 680 million dollars of his own money tied up in downtown Detroit real estate, and the cash stream from his Quicken Loans enterprise floats his ambitions of seeing a yuuuuge return on all that investment.
But the “revitalization” of Detroit has thus far been limited to the downtown core area, and even then has been mostly limited to public works projects such as sports stadiums (Ford Field, Comerica Park, the new Red Wings Arena), renovation of the 3 casinos, a smattering of hotels, some restaurants and small businesses and such.
In the meantime, the Detroit Public School system is worst in nation and is literally bankrupt, there’s massive doubt about the sustainability of Detroit Police/Fire/DPS/Other Employee pensions for even another decade, and the neighborhoods are as neglected as ever.
I say this with all seriousness, this is the time to experiment with a shut down of the public school system in favor of something else.
The general population and captured politicians have thrown kids & their welfare under the bus of the much preferred entitlements & subsidies to corporations, senior citizens (even mentioning a .005% reduction in social security or Medicare is a political death sentence), agricultural interests (aka farm lobby), BigPharma, Wall Street, Banks, etc.
Kids w/out responsible, able-bodied, able-minded parents are the least valued people in American Society in the grand scheme of things.
They don’t vote, are essentially incapable of advocating for themselves, and they are tossed into the pile of afterthoughts.
It’s not nearly as bad in the U.S. as it is in many very impoverished nations, but the Nordic States, much of Europe, Japan and South Korea, and many other developed nations rightfully shame the U.S. in terms of assisting children with an appropriate educational and nutritional safety net.
The real tragedy is that the U.S. spends about 34x as much per taxpayer on its military as it does any form of an educational or nutritional safety net for minor children.
The “something else” is charter schools and they are not the panacea that you seek.
I’m down for whatever at this point, let the social science major go batsh*t crazy for all I care. I doubt even they could make the situation worse.
The existence of charter schools had made DPS worse. They have moved education dollars away from the public school system. Compared to after state takeover of the board and the rise of charter schools, DPS was in good shape.
@28:
Agreed, but unfortunately it can’t happen.
1. The teachers’ union is the most powerful one in the country.
2. When the default reason is “it’s for the children”, the answer is always “Yes”.
3. It’s hard to break the myths that smaller class size and more money make for brighter students.
4. In reality, the quality of a student’s education has always depended upon their parents’ involvement at home. No public or private system can make up for absentee parents, since in both cases the parents assume their money is taking care of business.
Personally, I believe anything is possible.
bball, please do not insert words in my mouth.
Charter schools, as currently run and promoted, are a scam, plain & simple.
This is not a binary system.
I am thinking much bigger picture than you are, apparently, and far bigger than you can appreciate.
Enlighten us, Mr. Anderson.
I was replying to 28s call to get rid of the public school system. Charter schools are the alternative to the public school system.
I’m for totally new ideas, why even bother to have school system at all when children are clearly not learning? Why not a new paradigm altogether?
I’m all for changing what “school” looks like, but I think it needs to be run by a transparent publicly funded entity.
But publicly funded entities always seem to fail, at least in my experience.
Years back here they were trying to get vouchers for parents to send children to private schools in lieu of failing public schools. Nada. Then it became, ok just give us a state tax break. A big middle was Harrisburg’s response. Corrupt unions buy corrupt politicians and you and your kids pay for it.
Charter schools are basically a voucher program. Like Deadweight said, it’s a scam. It’s worse than the public schools you know and hate.
I’m not familial with charter schools so I can’t argue the point, but this is where the new paradigm comes in because I personally believe many of the current crop of young student’s cannot be properly educated in the first place. You know as well as I do a large part of a child’s education is the family unit which pretty much doesn’t exist for many. I don’t think the average student has the cognitive abilities to compensate for the lack thereof, hence my call for a new paradigm which benefits alleged students more and costs the state less.
Deadweight is crabby today.
I’m angry at the direction and state of the nation, bball, and not you.
We’re so screwed.
No doubt about that.
I picture you driving your RX-8 down M-59 today with the windows down and blaring “Everything’s Ruined” or “Falling to Pieces” by Faith No More while you flip everyone off. I understand, “The Real Thing” got me through my 8 mile run today and I was ready to kick a$$ at the end.
“Charter schools, as currently run and promoted, are a scam, plain & simple.”
Have to agree with DW. Charter schools still use public school facilities, and kinda’ sorta’ cherry pick their students.
We got the lead of gasoline. Let’s get the lead of the drinking water. The children will do better in school… promise. I know, that’s Flint MI, but close enough.
I’m currently rocking a very well maintained silver 2012 Mercedes E Class that I may or may not purchase (it’s a complicated backstory) as I am on a hunt for Ahab (aka 2010-2011 C63, which there are way fewer of than I anticipated when I began this quest).
“But publicly funded entities always seem to fail, at least in my experience.”
Privately funded entities fail just as much. They just don’t have to show their books.
Charter Schools are great until someone starts spending public dollars indoctrinating kids to tithe for life to a tax exempt organization that coincidentally pays their salary. You know, not YOUR religion, that one you hold in contempt. Tax dollars on that other religions indoctrination.
The focus on redeveloping the inner core is the right choice. Neighborhoods will be revitalized block by block outward. Downtown, Midtown, and New Center becoming a contiguous livable, viable space is the first step.
Personally, I’d love to live in the city. But [email protected] if I’m moving across 696 away from one of best suburbs in thr US with one of the top public schools in the country to higher taxes, less safety, and sh!ttier schools.
Maybe its time to bring OCP in.
Dan Gilbert has an extensive network of security systems and officers for his many buildings in downtown Detroit. Hes like three steps away from Delta City.
Wait, does Detriot PD also have blue Ford Taurus police cars?
They have Ford Taurus police cars that are vinyl wrapped with the city skyline.
Crap this sounds like Umbrella Corp.
Detroit being three steps from Delta City and Ford Taurus police cars signal the Robocop prophecy is close to coming true…
bball,
I’m guessing Farmington Hills? I love that area. My pop’s place is in the area, near 9 Mile and Halsted (oddly it’s a Northville mailing address though). And for any hockey fans out there, my little sis went to Farmington High School with some guy named Eric Lindros when he played for Detroit Compuware.
I live in Huntington Woods. Between 10 and 11 Mile and Woodward and Coolidge.
You just described most suburb vs. downtown living situations in places other than NYC, Chicago, and Portland.
Why do I see [email protected] in red letters in certain responses (e.g. your’s just now) from time to time on TTAC?
Yes, that’s exactly how you do it. Example: the delightful comeback of Sacramento’s Midtown (replete with leafy and walkable streets and parks, charming Victorian sublets, and quality dining and nightlife) has now catalyzed action in the next geographical ring: redevelopment of Downtown, rising home values in West Sac, the revitalization (gentrification?) of North Oak Park, and sputtering but admirable attempts to make Old North Sac into an arts district. But the same issue you identify remains: parents want to be in a good school district, in a neighborhood where their kids won’t be awakened by gunshots at night.
I mean, at the end of the day, if a city has been in the crapper for 20+ years…it’s going to be populated largely by people content to sit in crap, who will get that crap on others. You’ll attract yuppies, but some of them will be robbed at knifepoint. (Guess how I know.)
I see it all the time – cars left running while people run into convenience stores, donut shops, etc. But not usually with kids in them. Kids or no, that’s illegal in most places. About every couple of months here in Dallas, a car thief will take off with a running car, with a kid inside. You can’t fix stupid.
If your car has keyless ignition, you should be able to leave it running and lock it, and take the keys with you into the store.
“So, if you’re driving around with the little one and the hankering for chips or soda gets too great, please, go home instead or take your kid into the store”
Or, you know, just take the keys and lock the door.
Being in a parked car is probably safer than being wrangled in and out of a store and across a parking lot, especially at 1AM.
Unfortunately that was my old neighbor hood….As a rule…You never leave your car running unattended….let alone with a kid inside….The parent should have known that living in that environment..
In spite of preventative measures the parents could have taken to avoid this situation in the first place, the law ought to be if you steal a car with a kid in it – you should get saddled with a kidnapping charge. Even after returning the child and keeping the car – you’ve accepted a ransom. Now the charges get to stick.
The problem with that is that the type of people who go around jacking cars out of convenience stores at 1 am aren’t likely to be the types who think, “Wait! I read that if there’s a kid in here I’ll do another 10 to 15. I’d better check in case I get caught.” If (most) criminals did cost/benefit analyses of their actions they wouldn’t be criminals.
Like the traffic laws go – if you didn’t know or check, that’s on you!
F – ’em. It was wrong for them to take someone else’s stuff to begin with.
I hope dad sees a reckless child endangerment charge and the child a competent and loving foster family placement.
My favorite is when the dad pulls up to the gas pump, leaves the car running, starts pumping gas, and then goes inside, leaving the 3 year old kid in the front seat without a car seat. Baltimore knows how it’s done.
That’s one thing about inner city living, I’ve seen more un belted, no carseat toddlers in the back of saggy buicks then I ever thought possible.
Kids running and jumping around in the back of the 1997 Intrepid on the freeway like it’s a McDonald’s playplace.
The incident occurred at 1:00 am, an ‘AMBER Alert’ wasn’t sent out until 7:48, and the baby was found at 8:30.
Keep up the good work, Detroit PD.
The lady who writes the Amber Alerts didn’t answer her pager.
As mentioned : you simply cannot fix stupid .
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_Ignorance_ , OTOH , is fairly easy to correct .
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THANK YOU D.W. for a bit of sanity here ~ , Education of everyone is paramount to a healthy Economy and Society .
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Charter schools and vouchers are and always have been a blatant rip off of Public monies just like every other privatization suggestion .
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-Nate
The truly advanced societies of the world recognize that children, rich, middle class AND POOR are the true wealth of any nation, in both economic and intangible terms, and treat them as such.
We can continue to divide society up based on class warfare, and even punish kids for being born to the wrong parents, but that creates very adverse and enduring externalities that will severely impact society for generations, and it’s not working out so well for us thus far.
It’s genuinely pathetic that school funding in this nation is primarily derived from local property taxes, that this gap in funding between poor and wealthy districts can vary by a factor of 3 times or greater, and that the only remotely nutritional food that 20% or more of American Children of school age receive during any given day comes from their school lunch (which is subsidized for many, at minimal cost on a relative basis as a % of total government spending, yet which many in CONgress actually want to cut – real geniuses there; instead of going after the hundreds of billions in waste in defense, health care, corporate subsidies, etc., let’s try and save 7 or 12 million dollars by raising the price of subsidized school lunches!).
p.s. – We can have a for-profit prison system (run by graft-paying private companies) that incarcerates 2.5 million Americans, over half of whom are incarcerated for non-violent offenses, who cost the taxpayers $40,000+ per year to incarcerate, but lack the foresight to pay as little as $8,500 to $11,000 per year to fund a child’s education.
Here in california, and in New Jersey, the low income school districts often have more funding. My son’s school spends VERY little, 30 kids per class, few programs, no gifted and talented program at all. Nevertheless, school does very well on all the state exams.
Its a myth that low funding is the problem with public school in places like Newark NJ. Ask Mark Zuckerburg how much he has to show for his 100M
Hint, bad students make bad schools, not vice versa. My wife went to school in Korea with 50-60 kids per class. That didnt cost much. They do pretty well with it.
Funny you mention the funding. The town in Indiana where I grew up was one of the first in the state to allow/have a riverboat casino (if not the first). The public was initially against it, but there were promises of money to the city, and big increases in funding for the rather poor school system.
It happened, and now that school system is very well funded.
Now, the crooked administration wastes that money on sports and very nice light fixtures more often than say – books, but the money is there.
Mike Pence is of course helping with the rest of the state, docking Indianapolis Public Schools by 6% in funding, while bumping Carmel Clay schools (wealthiest part of Indianapolis) up 10.7%.
Preach it DW. It needs to be heard.
At least the Impala wasn’t Ashen Gray like mine! White is so, so plain…
Anyone ever have a colicky kid who would only sleep in a running car? Talk about an experiment in long term sleep deprivation. Fortunately, I had money for a nanny…
That was my thought when I read the article. Not to excuse the father’s mistake, but I totally get it.
All the calls for draconian punishments for the dad and thieves have obviously not spent much time walking in their shoes.
Yes, but….YOU NEVER LEAVE THE CHILD ALONE IN THE CAR! Period. End of story.
I don’t disagree. But the best solution for the child may be supporting the parents (at least the dad) with parenting education, rather than throwing him in jail and putting the kid into foster care.
Perhaps. I think that’s for qualified social workers to evaluate the child’s living circumstances.
I don’t know anything about the parents. Anything we might guess about it is conjecture, judgemental, maybe even racist. On the other hand, “I blame society” feels weak too. Personal responsibility counts for a lot.
I do feel comfortable in saying that there are too many children having children. I see too much of that every day.
I don’t know jack about children and even I know you don’t leave them in running vehicles, kinda 101 level stuff. If you’ve been on Earth for some time and haven’t picked up that tidbit, I’m not sure a class is going to help.
Should I give my child beer?
Does a box of wine count as a juice box?
Is there an app which might help me?
“Does a box of wine count as a juice box?”
Well its fruity and has some Vitamin C in it, what the hay.
It’s just some Capri Franzia.
Lmao. Capri Franzia now with Extra Dry!
Long time lurker, first time commenter. Just wanted to help DW out of his C63 misery, and get him back to his true calling, the systematic dissection of the slow, painful self immolation of the American Standard of the World Crapillac. DW, if you are willing to think out of the box a little, the biggest used C63 bargains in the world are up in Vancouver, B.C. We have a huge inventory of lightly used, impeccably maintained chariots available from our Asian friends who come over to display the ill gotten wealth to their community while here educating their kids and commoditising our real estate. Here is a link of a low mileage (15,000 miles) white one for about $30K USD.
https://vancouver.craigslist.ca/pml/cto/5584769977.html
I have two cars I have imported the opposite way – Jag four door and a supercharge Crossfire- and the border is well used to the process and gets you through in about an hour, at least going north. Mileage may vary the other direction.
Come up, get one, and stop by and say hello. I’ll show you what IPA is aboot.