Long Island resident pursues car thief who stole SUV with sleeping 14-month-old baby inside

A Long Island Good Samaritan shares his story after helping a car thief steal an SUV while the car owner’s 14-month-old grandson slept inside.

The incident took place Tuesday afternoon in Greenport as Bill Gorga was running errands collecting pastries and champagne for Valentine’s Day. Parking outside shops in the city, Gorga said he saw a car theft going on and then spotted a distraught grandmother.

“She says, ‘This is my car, there is a child in it, someone is leaving in a car with a child! ‘, Gorga told NBC New York.

The child is 14 months old and was left in a working SUV when the grandmother ran into the store. The car began to move, Gorga decided to help in a split second.

“I opened the car door and said get in. We need to pick up the child,” recalls Gorga.

He chased the stolen SUV for less than a mile before knocking it out of the way. Grandmother got out and tried to save her granddaughter, but somehow she also ended up in a stolen car.

“Now he’s gone again with her and the baby, and I wanted to cry at that moment, but I didn’t. Now I said that I need to take two people instead of one,” Gorga said.

He then forced the hijacker off the road a second time about a mile from where the chase began. It was then that the grandmother and little grandson got out of the car unharmed.

But the chase didn’t end there. Southold police say the hijacker fled in a hurry. He led the police another four miles or so towards Southold, eventually crashing into the railing of the American Legion building.

A Chick-fil-A employee in Florida is hailed as a hero after he helped stop a carjacking attempt in a restaurant parking lot.

Holtsville driver Paul Ludener was arrested for drunk driving and other charges. While Southold’s police chief said he wished Gorga would stop calling 911, he called the man’s actions heroic.

Gorga said he wasn’t a hero – he just acted on instinct.

“If I hadn’t done it, who would have done it? There was no one there,” he said. “I just happened to be in the right place at the right time to help someone.”

When it’s over, Gorga says that the unknown grandmother said one word to him: hanks. Police said it was not clear why Ludener stole the SUV. He has three previous criminal convictions and has been ordered to be held without bail.