A 2-month-old baby boy, left in a livery cab that was stolen while his mother darted into a restaurant in upper Manhattan, was with an aunt yesterday – and his mom was arrested for endangering the welfare of a child, cops said.
Jahaira Rodriguez, 30, who was staying at a motel in The Bronx with her baby, took the cab to an Inwood restaurant about 10:20 p.m. Thursday, police said.
After she was inside for a while, the cabdriver, Manuel Sinchi, went in to see what was keeping her – leaving the keys in the ignition and the baby in the back seat, cops said.
A thief nabbed the car and drove around for 20 minutes before ditching it. Cops soon found the car and the baby, who they said was in good condition.
Mireya Ortiz, whose son runs Bobby’s Fish and Seafood restaurant at Ninth Avenue at 206th Street, said Rodriguez was hysterical.
“She cried, ‘Somebody took the car, somebody took my son!’ ” he said. “The lady told me, ‘My baby, it’s only two months old, my husband will kill me!’ “
Both the mother and the cabby were charged with child endangerment. But Sinchi was released yesterday after the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute him pending further investigation, a spokeswoman for the DA said.
Rodriguez’s boy was in the care of her sister, cops said.
The city’s Department of Homeless Services uses the Baychester Motel, where Rodriguez lives, as a shelter. But cops said they don’t believe Rodriguez is homeless, and was staying there only temporarily.
Jose Vravo, a friend of Sinchi, said the driver left the baby in the car for only about four minutes.
He said he could not believe that Sinchi, who is married and the father of two, was arrested and his car impounded.
The thief ran off with the car’s radio and Sinchi’s personal effects, Vravo said.
Additional reporting byHasani Gittens