The man who is accused of stealing a car with a 3-year-old boy inside in Chicopee, Massachusetts on Friday morning, prompting an Amber Alert until the little boy was found safe at a hotel in East Windsor, appeared in court in Connecticut on Monday and he is due back in court later this month.
Police said the mother of the 3-year-old boy, who has autism, called 911 at 8:51 a.m. Friday and said her vehicle with her child inside had been stolen from Exchange Street in Chicopee.
Officers quickly responded and searched the area.
Within minutes, Massachusetts State Police notified Chicopee police that a license plate reader had spotted the car heading south on Interstate 91. Connecticut State Police as well as other local agencies were then notified as well.
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Police found the stolen car outside the Stop & Shop at 1095 Kennedy Road in Windsor, but neither the little boy nor the suspect were in it.
The little boy was soon after found safe at the Rodeway Inn on Bridge Street in East Windsor after hotel employees contacted authorities.
Police said they believe the suspect, 52-year-old Vadim Vorobyov, of Springfield, Massachusetts, dropped the child off at the Rodeway Inn and then drove to the Stop & Shop shopping plaza, where he left the car.
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Vorobyov was later found at the Dollar Tree in Windsor, where state police said he was trying to blend in, and he was taken into custody.
Police said the crime appears to have been random.
Enfield police posted that K9 Dunkin helped locate the suspect.
Vorobyov has been charged with second-degree kidnapping, risk of injury to a child, first-degree larceny, and first-degree reckless endangerment in Connecticut, according to Connecticut State Police.
Bond was initially set at $2 million. The state of Connecticut asked for bond to be set for $1 million, but the court lowered it to $800,000.
Vorobyov is due back in court on April 18.
He will be charged with kidnapping, child endangerment, and motor vehicle larceny in Massachusetts, according to Mass. State Police.
He will be brought to Massachusetts after he is arraigned in Connecticut.
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