Thief steals car with 4-year-old

girl inside in Robbinsdale

ROBBINSDALE, Minn. (AP) — Robbinsdale police say a thief stole a vehicle with a 4-year-old girl in the back seat.

The theft occurred Monday at a gas station in the Minneapolis suburb. The girl was able to get out of the car unharmed when the suspect briefly stopped the vehicle a few blocks away.

Robbinsdale Police Chief Jim Franzen says a woman was putting air in her tires around 7:30 a.m. when a man hopped in her vehicle with the girl in the back seat and took off.

The man stopped the vehicle, and security video shows the child opening the door and getting out before the man fled.

The Star Tribune reports the suspect was not found, but police found the car abandoned in neighboring Golden Valley.

Businessman pleads guilty

in labor trafficking case

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A businessman accused of exploiting his construction workers has pleaded guilty as his trial was about to start in Minneapolis.

Forty-seven-year-old Ricardo Ernesto Batres pleaded guilty Monday in Hennepin County to labor trafficking and insurance fraud.

Prosecutors alleged Batres denied the employees health coverage and workers’ compensation and forced them to live in overcrowded housing with no hot water. A criminal complaint says the construction workers did not have authorization to be in the U.S. and when they complained about the conditions, Batres reported them to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which deported some of them.

Minnesota Public Radio News reports under the plea deal, prosecutors are recommending a sentence of nine months in the workhouse with the possibility of early release.

Batres’ company, American Contractors and Associates, provided construction work throughout Hennepin County and the region.