A routine lunch stop turned into a frantic chase through traffic after a tow truck driver hauled away a car with a 4-year-old girl still inside.
The driver’s actions triggered a terrifying sequence that left the child injured and her father screaming in desperation.
The incident unfolded just before noon on Dec. 14 outside of Fort Lauderdale, according to the Sunrise Police Department.
Officers said a father had parked his gray sedan in a fire lane while he briefly stepped inside Bistro Creole Restaurant. His young daughter remained strapped into the back seat.
Surveillance footage reviewed by investigators shows the father waiting inside the restaurant when a tow truck pulled into the lot.
Within moments, the driver hooked the illegally parked vehicle and began pulling it away.
The father suddenly appeared outside, waving his arms and sprinting toward the truck as it accelerated out of the parking area.
“My kid! My kid!” the man can be heard shouting in the video as he chased the tow truck, officials said.
According to police and witness accounts, the father told officers he had been inside the restaurant for about two minutes when he saw the tow truck begin removing his car.
He ran outside and began pounding on the driver’s window, attempting to alert the operator that his daughter was still inside the vehicle.
The driver, identified as 34-year-old Oscar Suarez, did not stop. Investigators said Suarez later told police he ignored the father because he thought the man “might become aggressive,” according to an arrest report obtained by ABC News.
Instead of stopping, Suarez continued driving away as the father ran behind the truck, shouting and trying to keep pace.
Witnesses described heartbreaking scene as the tow truck sped off toward West Oakland Park Boulevard.
“The driver is speeding, and the dad is behind, screaming, ‘My daughter is in the car, my daughter is in the car, my daughter is inside,’” someone commented to WSVN.
Video shows the father running after the tow truck on foot and even wrenching open the driver’s door of his own car as it was being dragged away.
Despite the clear distress and repeated warnings, police said Suarez continued down the roadway.
As the pursuit moved into traffic, the situation escalated further. According to the arrest report, the father suddenly saw his daughter fall from the vehicle and land in the street.
Some witnesses told police they believed the child jumped from the moving car in an attempt to escape. Others said it appeared she fell out as the vehicle was being towed.
Investigators noted that after the girl ended up in the street, Suarez did not immediately stop driving.
Police said the father ran into traffic, scooped up his daughter from the middle street, and carried her to safety.
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“It’s OK, don’t cry,” a woman is heard telling the sobbing child in a 911 call.
The girl suffered what authorities described as superficial injuries to her arms and leg.
She was taken to a hospital, where she was treated for scrapes and bruises. Her father later told reporters that she was recovering well.
Meanwhile, officers contacted Suarez’s employer, All-Ways Towing & Storage, and instructed the driver to return the sedan to the restaurant.
Police said Suarez attempted to quietly drop off the car and leave the area, but officers were waiting and took him into custody.
During questioning, Suarez allegedly admitted that he failed to check the vehicle for passengers before towing it.
Police said he also acknowledged receiving multiple calls from his company informing him that someone was inside the car.
According to the arrest report, Suarez claimed he eventually pulled over to look inside the vehicle and did not see anyone.
That account was disputed by surveillance footage, witness statements, and the father’s account of repeatedly alerting the driver.
When Suarez appeared in court on Dec. 15, his attorney said the defendant checked the car “three times and there was no child inside.”
“He doesn’t know how it came about,” the attorney defended.
Suarez was charged with child neglect without great bodily harm, a third-degree felony under Florida law. He was released on a $10,000 bond.
Elsewhere, a separate tow truck case in Southern California drew national attention earlier this year, though it ended with a dramatically different outcome.
In South Los Angeles, a jury found tow truck driver Bobby Nuñez, 33, not guilty of federal charges after prosecutors accused him of stealing a government vehicle used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement during an immigration arrest.
Nuñez had faced charges of theft of government property and the possibility of up to ten years in prison before jurors returned a not-guilty verdict following a short trial.
In a brief statement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said, “The trial lasted four days. The jury deliberated for more than three hours. We have no further comment.”
The charges stemmed from an August incident in downtown Los Angeles that was later publicized by the U.S. Department of Justice through a released video.
The footage showed a tow truck removing a government SUV during an active immigration operation involving influencer Tatiana Martinez, who was livestreaming the arrest to thousands of viewers.
According to federal officials, Martinez’s vehicle had been blocked by two government cars with emergency lights activated at the exit of a luxury apartment complex parking structure.
Prosecutors alleged Nuñez pressed the passenger-side door of Martinez’s vehicle against an officer during the arrest.
Federal authorities said Nuñez swore at officers and told them “Something was going to happen” to them after being informed of the federal investigation.
While officers addressed a second individual interfering with the arrest, prosecutors claimed Nuñez towed away one of the government vehicles, which contained keys and a secured firearm.
The tow truck was later found parked in a designated space inside the same apartment complex two days after the incident.
Despite the allegations and the dramatic video footage, jurors ultimately rejected the government’s case, clearing Nuñez of the charges.
