A crook stole an SUV off a Harlem street Tuesday — driving off with a 1-year-old girl who had been left in the back seat, police said.
Cops pulled the robber over about 40 minutes later and found the tot safe inside.
The scare came just two days after a Bronx thief stole a minivan with a 6-month-old baby in the back.
The Harlem thief snagged the car at W. 134th St. and Frederick Douglass Blvd. about 8:51 a.m., cops said.
Cops from several neighboring commands converged on the area and spotted the SUV heading downtown.
They pulled the driver over at the corner of E. 71st St. and First Ave. on the Upper East Side around 9:30 a.m. and took him into custody without incident. Charges against him were pending.
The baby girl was unharmed, cops said.
On Monday, Victor Matos was arraigned in Bronx Criminal Court for kidnapping, grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property and acting in a manner injurious to a child for snagging a minivan on Father’s Day, cops said.
The suspect stole the idling vehicle around 11:30 a.m. Sunday near E. 146th St. and Third Ave. in Mott Haven while the baby’s mother ran into a bakery to pick up a cake.
The baby’s teen brother explained that the cake was for the infant’s 6-month birthday celebration.
Realizing there was an infant in the back seat, Matos dumped the car on Casanova St. in the Bronx. Prosecutors allege that even after realizing the baby was onboard he made no effort to return the child, leaving the infant in the backseat.
NYPD officers and detectives launched a frantic search for the stolen minivan. Within a few hours, Matos was in police custody.
“I was driving away, and I heard a sound,” he told police, according to prosecutors. “I got nervous because there is a kid in there.”
