A man wanted for weeks for the theft of a pickup truck that had a baby on board in Dorchester earlier this month has been arrested, Boston police said Monday.
Cristofanes Mendes of Boston was arrested in Roxbury Monday morning, police said. He was due to appear in Boston Municipal Court Monday on charges of reckless endangerment of a child, theft of a vehicle and driving without a license in the July 14 kidnapping on Geneva Avenue, police said.
Boston police said officers were called to Geneva Avenue and Leroy Street just before 3 pm that day on a report of a kidnapping. While responding, officers were told the victim’s van had been stolen with her baby still inside.
The baby’s parents told police they had parked at 430 Avenida Ginebra and got out of the truck to attend to their 2-year-old son. That’s when a man jumped into his vehicle and fled toward Bowdoin Street with his baby still inside, authorities said.
According to police, moments later, the driver returned to 430 Geneva Avenue and placed the baby, who was still in the car seat, on the sidewalk, before driving back onto Bowdoin Street.
The boy met with the parents and was evaluated by Boston EMS, police said.
About an hour later, the stolen truck was found at 156 Columbia Road, police said, but the driver was nowhere to be found.
The incident was caught on surveillance footage, which allowed a closer look at the driver as he sits on a bicycle just before the carjacking.
