Police arrest suspect accused of stealing car and kidnapping infant

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    GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. (Gwinnett Daily Post) — A Buford man is facing kidnapping and other charges after Gwinnett police rescued an infant from a car that he allegedly stole from the parking lot of a strip shopping center near the intersection of Lawrenceville Highway and Sugarloaf Parkway on Monday.

Joshua Rodriguez, 29, is accused of stealing the car at 4141 Sugarloaf Parkway with a 7-month-old baby inside. Cpl. Collin Flynn said the police department received multiple calls about the car theft shortly after 6 p.m. on Monday.

“The father of the child went inside the store and left the car running with the child inside,” Flynn said. “When he exited the store, he saw a Hispanic male sitting in the driver’s seat of his vehicle. The father confronted the male, who put the vehicle in reverse and began driving recklessly out of the parking lot. On the way out of the parking lot, the vehicle stuck a sign, another vehicle, and jumped the curb.”

Multiple Gwinnett police officers and sheriff’s deputies swarmed the area in search of the vehicle, and the department’s aviation unit was called in as well to help with the search. The vehicle was ultimately found by an off-duty police officer who responded to the area when he heard the call go out from dispatchers.

The vehicle had been abandoned in a parking lot less than a mile from where it had been stolen, and the infant was still in the car. Rodriguez was found and arrested after a search of the area, and Flynn said officers used surveillance footage from the scene of the vehicle theft to identify him as the alleged car thief.

In addition to kidnapping, Rodriquez is also charged with aggravated assault, theft of a motor vehicle and two counts of hit and run.

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