2 Kids Found In Car Of Sleeping Kohl's Shoplifter: Joliet Police

JOLIET ?Two small children were taken into protective custody by the Department of Children and Family Services in recent days after Joliet police say they found the 3-month-old baby boy and 2-year-old girl sleeping in the parked car of a 43-year-old man, Samuel Black.

Black was taken away from the parking lot of a business on Route 59 in handcuffs. He's being kept in the Will County Jail on charges of retail theft, and he also faces two unrelated new charges of endangering the life or health of a child.

Joliet police spokesman Dwayne English said that at 4:10 p.m. on Nov. 12, a representative from Kohl?s loss prevention came to the Joliet Police Department to make a retail theft report. Police believe that on Oct. 20, Black entered the store with an unknown male suspect. Together, police say they selected more than $600 worth of clothing and then exited the store without paying.

Detectives investigating the theft obtained an arrest warrant for felony retail theft for Black on Nov. 15.

A week later, at 6:28 a.m. Nov. 22, the officers were sent to the Childrens Courtyard of South Plainfield at 2218 Route 59 for a suspicious vehicle in the parking lot.

Upon arrival, officers found Black sleeping inside the vehicle. According to English, officers also found a 3 month-old baby boy and a 2-year-old girl wrapped in a blanket in the backseat of the vehicle. Officers noted the vehicle was not running, and the air temperature was near 40 degrees. Black was placed into custody without incident.

Officers took protective custody of the children, and both were brought to St. Joseph Medical Center by a Joliet Fire Department ambulance for a precautionary medical evaluation.

The children were then released to the custody of the Department of Children and Family Services.

Will County Jail records show that Black was freed from custody during the middle of the night, early Tuesday morning.