Sunrise Police have released 911 calls from witnesses who saw a tow truck speed off from a shopping center, taking a car with a man’s 4-year-old daughter still inside as he chased after it on foot, screaming for the driver to stop.
The calls describe a hectic scene as several people tell authorities a tow truck driver took off with a vehicle that still had a child inside as the girl’s father chased the truck through the parking lot outside of Bistro Creole Restaurant on West Oakland Park Boulevard, Sunday afternoon.
“They jacked the car up and pulled off as the dad was trying to tell the tow truck driver there’s a kid in the car,” one caller said. “He did not care. He proceeds to drive off into the middle of the highway.”
According to authorities, the girl’s father had parked his car and walked into the restaurant for about 2 minutes to pick up a takeout order.
Surveillance video from inside the restaurant shows the moment he sees the tow truck pull up in front of his car, then runs outside.
Within seconds, the driver hooked up his car and was gone.
“Oh, his kid’s in there,” a witness is heard saying in cell phone video showing the father chase after the truck.
Surveillance footage from outside the plaza shows the father attempting to grab the handle of his vehicle, appearing to open it just before the truck speeds off.
Court documents say the father told police he saw his daughter fall out of the vehicle and that he “immediately ran into traffic, picked up his daughter from the middle of West Oakland Park Boulevard, and moved her to safety.”
“And the little girl fell out of the truck, in the middle of the road,” a caller told dispatchers.
“Did she fall and hurt herself?” the officer asked.
“Cars were coming out, and the tow truck kept driving and kept going,” she said.
One caller told authorities she attempted to help the girl calm down as other drivers stopped to check on her.
“This just happened. Everybody is pulling over to help the little girl, and I opened my door so that she could lie down,” the caller said.
She then heard trying to soothe the girl, who was asking where her dad was.
The tow truck driver, later identified as 34-year-old Sergio Suarez, was taken into custody.
Bodycam video from later that day showed officers telling the father that Suarez had been arrested and returning the keys to his vehicle.
The father told officers his daughter is expected to be OK after suffering some minor scrapes and bruises.
Suarez has been charged with child neglect.
7News was there when he bonded out of jail on Monday night.
Always Towing in Pembroke Park, the company Suarez works for, has not commented on the arrest.