Police Search for Baby Taken With Stolen Van

Police in helicopters and on the ground scoured the Corona area into the night Sunday for a 9-month-old girl kidnaped when someone stole her family van as she sat in her car seat, authorities said.

Raul and Melissa Cortez of Cypress were house-hunting and had stepped away from their two-tone gray 1986 Ford Aerostar van for “no more than a few seconds,” leaving daughter Kaitlynn inside, when a man jumped in and drove away, said Corona Police Sgt. Terry Gustin.

Addressing the man who drove off with the baby, Raul Cortez told The Times tearfully: “I know you have a heart. This is a beautiful baby. She’s got a life ahead of her. We’ve worked so hard to give her a life. Please don’t hurt her.”

Melissa Cortez begged for help from the public and the kidnaper: “If he has her with him, he should keep on announcing her name (to calm her),” she said. “I’m sure he’s going to feel sorry for her. And please, everyone, look outside your door” in case the child, wearing white shoes and white pajamas with bunnies, is left on a doorstep.

“There’s (baby) food in the van. I hope he feeds her,” said the father, who ran down the street trying to catch the van. “God is going to give him a chance to give her back to us. Please save her life.”

The couple planned to spend the night at the Corona police station.

The keys were inside when the couple left the van and “the man got in and drove away” from the house on West Grand Street, Gustin said.

“The keys were in the vehicle,” Gustin said, and the mother was standing outside the van “when the man got in and drove away.”

Police said Kaitlynn was in a child’s seat right behind the driver’s seat.

“We’re concerned that if (the thief) abandons the van with the child inside, we might not be able to get to it in time,” Gustin said.

Late Sunday night, Corona police asked the Riverside County sheriff’s helicopter crew to make one last search in the Lake Mathews area, Gustin said.

The van has a green paper temporary license plate reading “Best Auto,” Gustin said.

Investigators described the suspect as a Latino, age 18 to 20; 5 feet, 8 inches tall; 135 pounds, with black hair combed back, and wearing jeans and a gray sweat shirt.