A candy thieving mom abandoned her 1-year-old son after she and two other men were caught stealing almost $300 worth of cough drops, gum and mints from a Manhattan drug store, authorities said.
Michelle Calderon, 23, left the tot sitting in his stroller after she and her two accomplices fled from a Duane Reade in the Financial District Oct. 7 when they were spotted on security cameras filling the baby’s stroller with the sweet treats, cops said.
The trio tried to swipe $179 in Halls cough drops, as well as $102 worth of Dentyne and Wrigley’s gum and $15 worth of Tic Tacs, cops said.
Calderon and partner Raymond Lebron, 20, allegedly hid the candy in the bottom of the stroller while a third crook, Darnell Johnson, 26, acted as a lookout.
When a store employee confronted them, Lebron hit him in the face before he and Calderon attempted to use the stroller as a battering ram, cops said.
The employee then grabbed hold of the stroller before the thieves abandoned the terrified child and bolted from the store.
The trio were later arrested and slapped with a slew of charges including abandonment of a child, robbery and endangering the welfare of a child, cops said.