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Convicted Car Thief Uses His Skills to Rescue Baby Locked in Chevy Tahoe

This is probably the only circumstance in which a convicted car thief is asked to break into a car: several inmates and police officers worked together to rescue a toddler locked inside an SUV in New Port Richey, Florida.
Inmates and police work together to rescue toddler locked inside SUV in Florida 7 photos
Photo: Facebook / Shadow Lantry
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Shadow Lantry and her husband had driven with baby Dallas out on the town. They were parked outside of the West Pasco Judicial Center, and the dad had just strapped the girl into her carseat. Then, he casually and without thinking tossed his keys on the front seat and shut the door, locking the baby inside in the process.

The parents immediately called for help and a couple of officers came, but a group of inmates and deputies happened to stroll by as well. They all worked together to get Dallas out in under two minutes from the Chevy Tahoe, but the biggest credit goes to one of the inmates, who just happened to be doing time for breaking into cars. With the help of an iron coat hanger, he managed to unlock the door with relative ease, much to the parents’ relief, ABC News notes.

“Thank God for the criminals in the world. I respect all y’all,” Lantry wrote on social media, in a post that also included video of the unlikely collaboration that saw Dallas out of the locked car.

Sheriff Chris Nocco tells ABC that the inmates were “low-risk offenders” on their way back to the facility after doing community work. Nocco insists that many of them are eager to do the right thing, if provided with the right opportunity – and this situation was just that for them.

“A lot of them, like these individuals, they know they made bad mistakes, bad choices, but they want to do the right thing in life,” Nocco explains. Very rarely, as it turns out, doing the right thing involves breaking into someone else’s car – with the police’s say-so, no less.

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About the author: Elena Gorgan
Elena Gorgan profile photo

Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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