Kidnappers abducted mother, infant son after Jefferson Park babysitting session
Police are investigating a kidnapping on this 5500 block of North Austin in the Jefferson Park neighborhood.
Google Street Views
A young mother was picking up her child from a babysitter in Jefferson Park on Sunday when two men kidnapped her and the child, shoving them into the back of a sport-utility vehicle before driving away, according to a police report.
Chicago police said they found the mother, 22, and her 1-year-old son safe hours later on the Near West Side.
The bizarre incident is detailed in the report, obtained by the Sun-Times, describing how the mother was followed by at least one man into a home in the 5500 block of North Austin Avenue. The man punched her repeatedly, a gun falling from his waistband at one point, before he forced her and her baby into a waiting SUV as she screamed, according to the report.
The motive remains unclear.
Two days before the incident, according to the police report, the mother asked a friend to pick up her child from an Englewood home and bring her son to the Jefferson Park home to be babysat.
The friend took her son there and babysat him, the report states. Two days later, on Sunday, the mother called the friend to say she was coming to pick up her child.
She arrived with the two alleged kidnappers, one of whom followed her inside and began arguing with her, according to the report. The report doesn’t say why she arrived with the two men, or if the men had driven her to the Northwest Side home.
The man who followed her inside then began punching her “about the body,” according to the report.
During the beating, the man dropped a gun from his waistband, picked it up then grabbed the mother, according to the report.
Holding her arms behind her back, the man moved her toward the car waiting outside, according to a witness who spoke with the Sun-Times. The witness said he heard the mother screaming incoherently while holding her infant child.
Concerned neighbors came outside and watched as the incident unfolded shortly before 5 p.m., one of them “howling” at the men, the witness said. The witness saw the man shove the woman and child into the backseat before driving off.
The men then sped away south with the mother and child inside, the report states.
After witnesses called police, officers searched several locations, including the South Shore home of the man who allegedly beat her, but did not find the victims, the report states.
Police eventually learned the mother’s location and found her and the child safe in the 3300 block of West Harrison Street, about two blocks from the Harrison District police station.
Police have made no arrests, a spokesperson said Wednesday.
"I've never seen this before," said the neighbor, who asked not to be named. "The neighborhood is pretty quiet."
Contributing: Rosemary Sobol