Advocates are warning against leaving children in idling vehicles after three young kids were kidnapped during separate, back-to-back car thefts in New York around the Thanksgiving holiday.

The incidents happened in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens between Nov. 23 and Nov. 29, according to the national nonprofit Kids and Car Safety. In each case, the idling vehicles were stolen with a child unattended in the backseat and later found with the child physically unharmed, according to the group.

“These incidents are traumatizing to everyone involved. We need parents to understand that running into the store, even running back into your house, is opening up this opportunity for somebody to jump in the car and take off,” says Kids and Car Safety director Amber Rollings. “It’s absolutely insane because it’s totally preventable.”

News 12 the Bronx reported on one of the cases that officials say unfolded on Thanksgiving Day. Authorities say the suspect, 22-year-old Mohamed Sakho, was arrested on Black Friday after crashing the stolen car and taking off. Officials say the child was found outside of the vehicle crying.

“These car thieves are watching and waiting. They know where people feel safe leaving their cars running. We always see an increase {in cases} in colder temperatures. People don’t want to take their young children out of the car when it’s freezing outside,” Rollins says.

“Safe neighborhoods don’t exist anymore. That’s not the world we live in,” says Town of Woodbury resident Kevin Chambers. “This should be a learning lesson. Ninety-nine percent of the time it’s going to work out, but that 1% chance, you don’t really want that.”

Experts say never leave a child, regardless of age, alone in a car for any length of time, and suggest caregivers use the drive-thru or curbside pickup when shopping. They recommend keeping doors locked with the keys out of the vehicle and in-hand when pumping gas with kids in the car.

“It’s a lot of work but I can promise you, having someone take off with your child is the most horrifying thing that you can ever think of,” Rollins says.

Rollins says nine children were kidnapped during car thefts this year in New York and that 104 incidents occurred in 2024 throughout the U.S.

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