Tow truck driver Bobby Bratsakis froze in fear when he learned he was carrying more than just an illegally parked vehicle Thursday afternoon.
He was also towing a sleeping 4-month-old girl, buckled into a child seat and hidden from his view by tinted windows.
"That's kidnapping!" he said frantically after a company dispatcher told him about his precious extra cargo. "What was I supposed to do?"
Kaliyah Maree was accidentaly towed away from the King Arthur's mobile home park on Massachusetts Avenue in Riverside after she was left alone for several minutes.
When it was all over, the father was cited by police, the tow truck driver was sorry, the girl's mother was frantic, and lessons were learned.
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Kaliyah's father, Damien Maree, said he left the sleeping infant inside the back seat while he picked up his son from a relative's home. He said his son distracted him for several minutes with information about a school field trip, and when he returned, his Jeep Cherokee -- and daughter -- were missing.
"I dropped to tears," said Maree, who was reunited with a desperate dad about 20 minutes later. "I thought someone stole my daughter. All I have is my kids."
Father and daughter were reunited at a Jurupa Avenue gas station.
"I'm so sorry, man," Bratsakis told Maree when the two met, shaking hands as Riverside police officers looked on.
Officers cited Maree using Kaitlyn's Law, named after Kaitlyn Russell, the 6-month-old Corona girl who died after a baby sitter left her alone inside a van for two hours. The temperature inside the vehicle reached an estimated 130 degrees. The fine is up to $100.
"This is an example of why they have this law," said Sgt. Melissa Bartholomew, who responded to the scene.
Bartholomew said it was apparent that Maree did not deliberately endanger his child, so no further charges were brought against him.
But Tammy Russell, Kaitlyn's mother and founder of 4 R Kids Sake, said a child should never be left inside a vehicle alone for any amount of time. Her nonprofit organization was started to inform parents of the danger of leaving children unattended in vehicles.
"People don't realize that one minute can be deadly to your child," she said.
Russell would like to see the fines and penalty increased, she said. Feb. 8 would have been Kaitlyn's third birthday.
"People say time heals. It doesn't. You just learn to cope," she said.
Kaliyah's mother, Keisha Dunn, puts blame on her boyfriend, Maree, but also on Rock Bottom Towing, the company that took away the illegally parked vehicle.
"He drove the car off with my daughter in it," she said. "Apologies aren't going to do it. I don't understand why he isn't in jail."
Dunn alleges that one of the drivers of the tow truck company entered the Cherokee and drove it to another location before towing it away.
Bratsakis, his assistant and an official with the mobile home park dispute the allegation.
"We didn't look inside," said Samuel Piceno, the assistant driver, explaining how they took the truck away.
Riverside police Sgt. Don Taulli said there isn't a specific law that oversees how tow truck drivers do their jobs in a private setting. Bratsakis said he always takes a picture of the vehicle committing the infraction and notifies police to make sure that the car isn't stolen.
Taulli said the tow truck driver should have made sure no one was in the back seat, if possible.
And, most important, he said, no child should ever be left alone inside a vehicle.
"It's the law of common sense," he said.
Reach Michael Coronado at (909) 368-9645 or mcoronado@pe.com
