Authorities are seeking a thief who took a vehicle containing a sleeping child and returned to leave the baby and kept the car.

Wednesday, November 10, 1999

Authorities are seeking a thief who took a vehicle containing a sleeping child and returned to leave the baby and kept the car.

According to an Austin Police Department report, Sheree L. Tufte, 24, of Austin, borrowed a car from Chris Thurnau Tuesday.

Tufte went to Western Manor Apartments at 2700 3rd Ave. SW at approximately 8:26 p.m. Tuesday to visit a friend, Juanita Gehring. Tufte took her 4-year-old son with her into the apartment complex, but left a nine-month-old son sleeping in the car, which was parked with the motor running.

When she returned minutes later to the parking lot, the borrowed car containing her baby was missing.

Gehring heard a baby crying in the hallway outside her apartment and went to investigate, minutes after Tufte left to look for her car. She found a baby lying outside her apartment and called police.

The baby was reunited with his mother and found to be unharmed.

Police questioned three suspects in the car theft without success.

The vehicle is a 1989 Chevrolet Cavalier white in color and bearing Minnesota license plates.