Yesterday afternoon, an Amber Alert was issued for an 8 year old boy who was sleeping in the backseat of his mother's parked Nissan Pathfinder in Inwood when the car was stolen. Luckily, Jay Polanco was found in Nassau County just a few hours later, after a driver noticed an SUV pulled over on the Northern State Parkway. The driver, 25 year old Tom Knabbe, wanted to help the female driver, but his suspicions were aroused when Michele Garneau seemed intoxicated, couldn't find the address of where she was headed to, and couldn't speak Spanish to the boy. Knabbe ended up driving Garneau and Jay to a police station for help. A Spanish speaking police officer there revealed that Jay was the missing boy in the Amber Alert.
Garneau, who was described as "highly intoxicated" by the police, was arrested after she tried to make a break for it - she was on the street, trying to get a cab. Jay was reunited with his family, who explained what happened. His mother Belkis Gonzalez had gone into a hair salon, leaving Jay's grandmother and Jay in the car. When the grandmother got out to check to see how long Gonzalez would take, Garneau got into the car.
