Baby in Back Repo Sparks Panic

Orange, NJ – October 13, 2025 – It’s every parent’s worst nightmare; their child goes missing. Fortunately for one New Jersey mother, the GPS in her ear pods lead police right to her. Still asleep in the back seat, the young child was found on the lot of the repossession company who had just repossessed her car.

On the late afternoon of Saturday the 11^th, the Orange Police Department received a frantic call from an unnamed mother reporting her car stolen with her child inside. According to the mother, at about 4:20pm, she had left her SUV parked on Reynolds Terrace briefly as she went inside. In the backseat sat her sleeping young child.

Within minutes, the car was gone, she reported.

Still wondering if the car had been stolen, she checked with her finance company, who probably was not available. By 5:05, she called police.

Police immediately began canvassing the area searching for the vehicle, noting that the woman still had the keys in her possession. But there was one item in the car that turned things around.

Using the GPS tracking feature of her wireless earbuds left inside the car, police traced the vehicle to a commercial tow yard on Grove Street in Newark.

Upon arrival at the tow yard shortly after 6pm, they found the SUV parked in the lot. In the back seat, the child was still asleep inside.

Without having the key, officers were forced to break a window to reach the child. EMS personnel evaluated the child and reported it to be in good health.

Investigators later confirmed that an unnamed private towing company had repossessed the car due to missed loan payments. Police report that the official repossession order wasn’t “faxed” to police until after the incident had already gotten out of hand.

Source: RLS Media

Editor’s Note:

This story is repeated at least annually and reinforces the remedial urgency that agents always check the inside of all vehicles before leaving with them. While there are no mention of charges against either the mother or the repossession agent or tow company, there may come a day when they do which could include a lawsuit.