Florida authorities arrest man in car theft -- and sleeping baby

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Palm Beach County sheriff's authorities arrested a 23-year-old man at Haverhill Park on Wednesday, the day after he reportedly stole a car with an infant inside from a West Palm Beach-area gas station.

Marquise Sharkear Hudson faces car theft and kidnapping charges. He is scheduled  to make his first appearance before a Palm Beach County judge on Thursday morning.

Sheriff’s authorities said Hudson stole a black Kia Rio — left with its engine running — at about 4 a.m. from a Raceway gas station at Wallis and Haverhill roads just west of Palm Beach International Airport. A 5-month-old was asleep in the back of the car.

Hudson drove about 6 miles to a Sunoco gas station in Royal Palm Beach where he knocked on the door of the convenience store to get the overnight clerk's attention, said Michelle Ashby, co-owner of Jack's Place restaurant inside the gas station just south of Okeechobee Boulevard on State Road 7.

“Take the baby! Take the baby!” Hudson reportedly yelled.

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Surveillance-camera video shows a man in a white tank top and dark pants pulling up to the Sunoco in a dark car. He hops out of the vehicle, lifts the baby in the car seat out of the car and runs up to the front of the store.

Ashby said he left the baby with the clerk, who called 911 while the infant slept in the car seat.

“(The clerk) said the suspect appeared to be scared and in a hurry when he knocked on the door,” Ashby said.

When deputies arrived they picked up the baby from the carrier, waking it from a sound sleep. Ashby said the baby seemed fussy.

The baby’s mother arrived about 30 minutes later.

Deputies tracked the stolen car to Sansbury’s Way and Okeechobee, about 3 miles east of the Royal Palm gas station.

He was arrested Wednesday afternoon at Haverhill Park. The details of his arrest, and how authorities pinned Hudson to the crime, were not immediately known.

Jail records indicate Hudson has been arrested in the county on similar charges at least twice in the last year. He served jail time last year after pleading guilty to driving without a valid license and car theft.

Hudson has an open theft case from a January incident in which he reportedly stole a pizza from a Sunoco gas station near the intersection of Jog Road and Southern Boulevard. He pleaded not guilty to the charge.

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