A 21-year-old Fenton man has been charged for stealing a Jeep with a baby inside from an Imperial gas station.
Ryan Beckler, of the 2200 block of Palatine, is being held at the Jefferson County Jail without bond. He is facing charges which include stealing a motor vehicle, kidnapping-facilitating a felony and endangering the welfare of child.
Around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, police received a car about a stolen vehicle and a abduction from the Phillips 66 station at 2200 Old Highway 21. That's when deputies learned the driver of the black 1997 Jeep Cherokee had left her child unattended in the running vehicle while she went into the gas station.
When she walked out of the convenience store, she saw her vehicle being driven off of the parking lot. A few minutes later, police received a call that the baby had been dropped off in a driveway in the 2300 block of Romaine Creek Rd. in Fenton. The baby was unharmed and returned to her mother.
Around 8 p.m., an officer spotted the Jeep traveling north on Highway 141 near Fiedler Lane in Fenton. The deputy tried to stop the vehicle at which time the driver/suspect resisted and attempted to flee.
Capt. Ralph Brown, of the sheriff’s department, said the mother will not be charged in the case.
"We didn't seek charges against her," he said. "Missouri law is very specific that death has to result from leaving a child in a car. What she did was a sheer mistake. She was only 15 feet from the car when she saw it drive off."
