Family recounts being carjacked while dropping kids off at St. Louis daycare

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOV) - A family is still shaken up after getting their car stolen as they were dropping off three young children at a local daycare center.

It happened in the parking lot of Guardian Angel Settlement Association just after 7 a.m. Monday morning.

“When he got in the car I was like, ‘My man. Please. I got a baby back here. Please stop so I can get the baby out, and you can take the car’,” victim Tyrone Hayes said.

Hayes, 60, let out his two oldest grandchildren first and then proceeded to go to the backseat to pick up his newborn granddaughter, Amanda. Hayes said that’s when the suspect hopped inside the driver’s seat and tried to take off as he held onto the 9-month-old and begged the man to stop.

“I wasn’t thinking about a gun. I wasn’t thinking about nothing. My thing was to save this baby,” Hayes said.

The thief allowed the baby and her grandpa to get out safely before pulling off. The children’s mother was parked nearby with a car full of balloons and a birthday cake for her son.

“They don’t care. They can care less about what happens to the child. All they know is they are out for a ride,” said mom, Keisha Jackson-Hayes.

“I am just elated that it didn’t get as worse as it could have gotten,” Hayes said.

Police are looking for a white Chevy Impala they believe is associated with the carjacking. The family’s Volkswagen was found 20 minutes away on Chambers Road and has been impounded to a towing lot in Florissant.

Guardian Angel Settlement Association told News 4 the daycare has turned over surveillance video to police and is looking into getting additional cameras.

“I do want people to know to just be careful about your surroundings,” Jackson-Hayes said. “It could be at your most vulnerable time, at a daycare.”

Anyone with information is asked to call St. Louis Metropolitan Police at 314-444-0001.

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