Oddly enough

Oddly enough

Toddler found unharmed but scared, cold after carjacking

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.

It was a little bundle of purple that caught the attention of one Albuquerque police officer as his spotlight crossed the dark, empty parking lot.

It was Caraline Leon-Alcocar, the 3-year-old girl who had been missing for more than four frigid hours after a thief jumped into her mother’s car and sped away with the toddler still buckled up inside.

Albuquerque police and dozens of volunteers launched a frantic search Saturday night after the car was found abandoned and the girl was not inside. It was dark, the temperatures were dropping and police had no leads.

Officer Chris Poccia spotted the girl about 1 a.m. Sunday. She was sitting on a parking block, wrapped in her purple jacket with arms folded across her chest and a hood covering her head. She wasn’t moving.

The officer’s lapel video shows him jumping out of his patrol car and scooping her up. She can be heard telling him repeatedly that she’s cold.

“You could tell she was just really scared and really cold,” Poccia told reporters Sunday.

The toddler was unharmed, but police on Monday continued their search for the thief. They’ve been circulating security camera footage of the suspect from the grocery store parking lot where the mother’s car was stolen as she was just feet away filling up water jugs.

Town denies it detained 3rd-grader over false accusation

PROVIDENCE, R.I.

A town accused of detaining a third-grader for several hours after another child told adults she had chemicals in her backpack denied the allegations Monday in its first response to a lawsuit filed by her family.

The lawyer for the town of Tiverton, Marc DeSisto, did not explain in his filing what happened during the October 2014 incident or offer an alternate version of events. He would not comment further when reached by phone.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island sued in U.S. District Court in Providence last month on behalf of the girl and her parents.

The family’s lawyer has said the child’s constitutional rights were violated when she was taken off a school bus, searched, put in the back of a police cruiser, taken alone to the police department and questioned, even though it was clear that she was the victim of a false accusation.

The lawsuit says another third-grader had falsely reported to adults that the girl and her friend had chemicals in their backpacks. Police found no dangerous chemicals when they searched the child or her friend.

The school district made automated calls that evening to all elementary school parents falsely stating that two students claimed to have chemicals and threatened to set a school bus on fire, according to the lawsuit.

Associated Press