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Published on January 17, 2025
Missing 4-Year-Old Found Safe in Rock Island After Swift Response to AMBER Alert, Five Suspects ArrestedSource: J. Pelkonen, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In a swift resolution to a harrowing situation, a 4-year-old girl was found safe following an AMBER Alert after she was inadvertently caught in a car theft in Rock Island, Illinois. According to WGN-TV, the girl, identified as Blessing J. Aoci, was in the back seat of her mother's brown Saturn Outlook when it was stolen from the 1300 block of 14th ½ Street. Left briefly unattended and running by the child's mother as she went to collect another child, the vehicle was taken, carrying Blessing in the back.

The missing vehicle was found unoccupied roughly 20 minutes later, near 8th Street and 15th Avenue, but with no sign of Blessing nor the booster seat inside, as detailed by CBS News Chicago. Rock Island Police Chief Timothy McCloud urged the public not to blame the mother, emphasizing the rapidity of vehicle thefts. "This happened in seconds," McCloud said, highlighting the dangers of leaving children unattended in running vehicles, even momentarily.

Following an intensive search, the young girl was discovered in an alleyway, reuniting with her mother before undergoing evaluation at UnityPoint Health Trinity Rock Island Hospital. Luckily, the child appeared to be in good health when found. Her rescue concludes an hours-long search that brought together multiple law enforcement agencies, including the Rock Island County Sheriff's Office and the FBI, among others.

Five individuals, mostly minors, were arrested in connection to the abduction, pointing to a broader issue of juvenile delinquency and vehicular crimes in the region. Jaron Bailey-Harris, 18, faces charges of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and possession of a stolen vehicle, while two 16-year-olds, a 15-year-old girl, and a 14-year-old girl are all charged with possession of a stolen vehicle, as reported by WGN-TV. One of the 16-year-old males has also been charged with kidnapping.

The Rock Island Police Department did not initially believe the act to be an intentional kidnapping, aligning it with a spate of recent vehicle thefts. "We obviously aren't going to rule anything out, and are looking at all possibilities," Chief McCloud clarified in a statement obtained by CBS News Chicago, "but at this time, with the number of stolen vehicles that happened overnight, we believe that this was probably inadvertent that the child happened to be in the back seat of the car at the time." With multiple vehicle thefts also occurring in the Quad Cities area near Rock Island, officials are treating the crimes with increased vigilance.