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OGDEN — It took a mother to help a woman living every parent's worst nightmare.
After an Amber Alert notified Mindy Michelle and Tiffany Bingham that a car had been stolen with a 10-month-old baby in the back, the two knew they had to do more than hope for a happy ending.
"I was just bawling because I felt so drawn to this Amber Alert," said Bingham. Her sister, Michelle, noticed a silver sedan without license plates in her Plain City neighborhood, and said she "knew" it was the car that police had been searching for since it was stolen from an Ogden mother Wednesday morning.
"I don't know how, but I knew that that was the car, and I knew she was in this neighborhood," Michelle said. After calling 911, she and her sister decided to begin searching for the baby on their own.
"I just had to do something," Michelle said. "I had to feel productive."
The women heard a baby cry, and Michelle said she "just ran toward that sound."
They found the baby sitting in her carseat on a random porch just two hours after the car was stolen, according to Ogden Police Chief Randy Watt.
"I just grabbed the carseat, and I picked her up," Michelle said, "and I said, 'Hi, baby!'"
Bingham burst into tears while her sister picked up the infant.
"She was fine, other than she needed a diaper change," Bingham said.
Meanwhile, a Utah Department of Public Safety helicopter spotted the stolen vehicle and followed it until officers from Ogden police and the Weber County Sheriff's Office could move in and arrest a 20-year-old man and a 34-year-old woman.
Watt said the dramatic events began about 10:45 a.m. when the baby's mother left her car running in a driveway in the 200 West block of Patterson Street in Ogden while she went inside to talk to an acquaintance. Her daughter, Amila Spratley-Apke, 10 months old, was in the back in a car seat, according to police. Another adult was also in the car.
But that adult also got out of the vehicle and went inside the house, leaving the infant unattended in the running vehicle, Watt said. When the two came back outside, the car was gone.
An Amber Alert was issued, which prompted several calls from people who thought they had seen the stolen car, the chief said. Surveillance cameras were also used to determine the direction that the vehicle fled. By 12:37 p.m., the child was left on the porch of a Plain City home, Watt said.
Among those who thought they'd seen the car were the sisters. They said they now share a special bond with Amila. Her mother, Breesha Spratley, was emotional in thanking the women after wrapping her daughter in a long, tearful embrace.
"I really appreciate you guys being there and being a good place for her to be," she said. "That's really awesome, that there's good people out there still."
Watt doesn't know if the suspects knew that a child was in the vehicle when they took it, but they realized it not long after, he said.
Agents from the FBI Child Exploitation Task Force as well as the Department of Public Safety helicopter immediately assisted Ogden and Weber County authorities in looking for the girl.
Roddy Mike Montes, 20, of West Haven, and Angel Jusso, 34, were booked into the Weber County Jail for investigation of child kidnapping.
Contributing: Amy Donaldson, KSL
