A three-month-old baby who was in the back of a stolen Ford Escape was returned to its mother on Sunday evening in Riverton after the car thief abandoned the vehicle, according to public statements by the police coupled with scanner traffic.
Law enforcement agents found the stolen vehicle west of Riverton at about 8:40 p.m. with the baby in it, but no driver.
He fled on foot, according to scanner traffic.
One agent, speaking on the scanner, asked other law enforcement personnel about snow or other soft terrain where he could search for tracks.
Just before 9 p.m. a woman with dark hair arrived near Blue Spruce Lane and Riverview Road where numerous sheriffs and other law enforcement vehicles had converged, shouting, “My baby! My baby!”
Riverton Police on scene where a car thief fled on foot, and a frantic woman reclaimed her baby (Clair McFarland, Cowboy State Daily) 
Emergency medical responder carries the baby’s car seat carrier to the ambulance. The baby is safe, Riverton police say (Clair McFarland, Cowboy State Daily) 
Blue Spruce Lane and Riverview Road where numerous sheriffs and other law enforcement vehicles had converged on Sunday evening (Clair McFarland, Cowboy State Daily)
She gathered a crying baby wrapped in a blanket into her arms, and walked toward an ambulance that arrived on scene around the same time.
An emergency medical responder carried the baby’s car seat carrier to the ambulance a few paces behind the distraught mother.
One agent speaking on the scanner said emergency medical personnel arrived on scene to check the baby’s condition.
A Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper on scene declined to comment to Cowboy State Daily.
As of 9:13 p.m. scanner traffic indicated the manhunt for the car thief was ongoing.
Agents were talking about getting video footage from the Hill Street area, near Central Wyoming College.
A later statement released by the Riverton Police Department says the Escape was stolen from “Hill Drive near CWC.”
Update - this story was updated after RPD confirmed the car was stolen from a neighborhood near Central Wyoming College.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
