Boy, 4, OK after SUV is stolen
A cellphone tracking app led a deputy to a stolen SUV with a 4-year-old boy inside Wednesday morning, and a suspect was identified later in the afternoon, the Broward Sheriff ’s Office said. Nykea Johnson left her Mitsubishi Outlander running when she stopped in at a Kwik Stop at a Marathon gas station in Pembroke Park, the sheriff ’s office said.
While Johnson, 36, of West Park was briefly inside the convenience store at 5551 W. Hallandale Beach Blvd., a man jumped inside and drove off with the child in the backseat, according to the sheriff ’s office.
Deputies and police officers from Miramar, Hollywood and Hallandale Beach joined the search for the child at about 7:43 a.m. Johnson had left her cellphone in the Mitsubishi and a deputy used the Find My Phone app that allows remote tracking of smartphones.
The app directed police to a parking lot near a Home Depot in West Park, and a deputy found the stolen SUV there, about 1.5 miles northwest of the gas station, with the child inside. He had not been harmed. “This is the best possible outcome that we could have had,” said BSO spokeswoman Keyla Concepcion.
In surveillance video released Wednesday afternoon, a man can be seen walking away after dropping off the SUV, Concepcion said. He had a beard, wore a tan camouflage baseball cap with a yellow bill; a dark jacket with white stripes on the sleeves, dark pants and white shoes.
The suspect is wearing similar clothing in a photograph taken the day before at the Home Depot, at 1951 South State Road 7 in West Park, where store personnel recognized him, Concepcion said.
Detectives are asking anyone with information about the man to contact Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477 or online at browardcrimestoppers.org.