Police and prosecutors provided new details Tuesday on the alleged kidnapping of a toddler, which prompted an Amber Alert, during the theft of an SUV in Lawrence, Massachusetts, Monday night.
The girl was eventually dropped off unharmed at Lawrence General Hospital and two people, including the man accused of stealing the car, were arrested after the SUV ran out of fuel dozens of miles away in Berlin, Massachusetts, after a high-speed chase, police said.
The alleged thief, Adam Maksou, didn't drop off the child until after picking up the second person charged in the case, then driving home to Methuen, where his step-father said he had to return the child or take her to a fire station, Assistant District Attorney Shailagh Kennedy said in Lawrence District Court Tuesday.
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The Amber Alert for the girl, who is 22 months old, was issued about 9 p.m. She was in the back seat of a Honda Pilot that was stolen from outside the barber shop about 8:19 p.m., authorities said.
The child’s mother told investigators her son was almost done getting his hair cut, so she took her daughter with her to move the SUV closer to the barber shop door. She said she left her daughter in the SUV while she went back in for her son and it just took a few minutes for someone to jump in and drive away.
Surveillance footage captured the moment Maksou allegedly got into the SUV and drove off, and the girl's mother running outside and chasing after it on foot.
"It happened so fast," said the shop's owner, who helped police look through footage to identify the thief.
When he dropped off the toddler at the hospital, Kennedy said, Maksou "asked a 'Spanish woman' if she could watch his child while he parked the car."
Maksou wasn't arrested for more than an hour after the child was taken. The Honda was spotted by a Chelmsford police officer in the city, the agency said, and when he attempted to pull it over, it drove onto Interstate 495 headed south.
The officer chased after the SUV onto the highway, with another one joining the pursuit, which prosecutors said reached 110 mph. Police said the Honda pulled off the highway in Berlin and apparently ran out of gas, which forced it to stop, and Maksou and the other person inside, later identified as his girlfriend, Jamie O'Neill Garrity, were taken into custody despite resisting arrest.
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Both were charged with kidnapping. Maksou was also charged with car theft and reckless endangerment of a child, while Garrity was charged with receiving a stolen vehicle and, after initially giving a false identity, with providing a false name.
Maksou was ordered held on $75,000 bail and Garrity was ordered held on $10,000 bail. Both were ordered to stay at home, to be enforced through GPS monitors, and to stay away from the victims.
The child's grandmother told NBC10 Boston late Monday that the girl was being evaluated at the hospital but "everything is going to be fine."
