KALISPELL – A man is facing charges after stealing a car with a two-year-old child asleep in the backseat.
Isaiah Lee Maura, 22, who is said to be a Kalispell area transient, is now in the Kalispell jail on initial charges of theft, kidnapping, and criminal endangerment.
Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry said a construction worker contacted 911 just before 10:45 a.m. on Sunday stating a man had dropped off a young child at the Zip Trip in Hungry Horse.
A short time later, authorities received reports that a vehicle had been stolen from the Hungry Horse Chapel parking lot.
The caller told dispatchers the parents were going to church and had left their child sleeping in the backseat of their car while they took items into the church. When they returned to the car to get their child, the vehicle was gone.
Sheriff Curry said the child was not hurt during the incident and has been safely returned to the parents.
A Columbia Falls police officer spotted the wanted vehicle on U.S. Highway 2 in Columbia Falls near Super One Foods. As the officer was attempting to make a stop, the vehicle crashed into another car.
The driver of the stolen vehicle and the driver of the other car were uninjured. Sheriff Curry said the suspect was then taken into custody without incident.
The incident remains under investigation by the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office.
