A Gurnee woman is accused of stealing a car with a toddler inside, abandoning the barefoot boy in the cold, and then using the hijacked vehicle for drugs and sex before police tracked her down through a live WhatsApp feed.
Prosecutors said the bizarre incident began around 11:46 p.m. on September 8 at the Speed Queen Laundry, 6808 West Grand Avenue, in Montclare. While the man went inside to do laundry, the woman stayed in their 2009 Honda Civic and changed her son’s diaper in the back seat. It was just three days after his second birthday.
After a few minutes the boy fell asleep and she went inside to help the man move laundry from the washer to the dryer. But first, she set up a makeshift baby monitor by launching a WhatsApp video call and leaving her phone in the car, prosecutors said. She also left the car running and unlocked.
Moments later, the video feed picked up noise. Thinking the boy woke up, the couple looked outside and saw their car reversing out of its spot. The man sprinted after the car as 35-year-old Mica Best drove away, prosecutors said. The man grabbed the door handle and tried to break the side window with his phone, but Best accelerated, striking him in the knee, according to a detention petition. He was not seriously injured.
Several people dialed 911 as the couple’s car sped westbound on Grand Avenue.
Prosecutors said surveillance video showed Best walking into the lot, peering into the rear window, and climbing into the driver’s seat before pulling away.
Cameras later captured her in the 1000 block of Thomas Place in Oak Park, where she allegedly removed the boy from the car and tried to leave him on the ground. The petition said the child clung to Best before she pushed him down, returned to the car, and drove away.
Within minutes, another camera recorded Best meeting a man on a CTA Green Line platform and offering drugs and sex, prosecutors said in a detention filing. The pair returned to the stolen car where, unbeknownst to them, the WhatsApp feed was still live.
Police saw Best’s face, then the man’s, on the victim’s phone. Officers even spoke over the call, warning Best and the man that they were committing a kidnapping, prosecutors said. The man appeared to try to end the call.
Cops eventually found the hijacked car in Bellwood. CPD arrested Best and the man she met at the Green Line. Nearly an hour after the abduction, officers found the boy barefoot and crying less than a block from Harlem Avenue, not far from where Best allegedly dumped him.
Prosecutors said his feet were “incredibly cold” from the 50-degree weather, but he was released after being checked out at a local hospital.
Judge Ankur Srivastava ordered Best detained. She is charged with aggravated kidnapping of a child, aggravated vehicular hijacking, aggravated battery of a child causing great bodily harm, possessing a stolen motor vehicle, and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
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