Man allegedly steals necklace off the neck of a 4-year-old in Auburn

On August 15 just after noon, a 4-year-old girl was sitting in a booth in her family’s Auburn restaurant.

Her mom was in the restaurant kitchen making her lunch, while her dad was not at the restaurant out running errands.

She was watching something on her iPad, when a man noticed her sitting at the booth, as seen on security footage in the restaurant.

He continued to look over at her for a few minutes before finally getting up and walking over to the little girl and asking what she was watching, and the little girl turned the screen and showed the man.

He leaned in and noticed the gold necklace around her neck before unlatching it, pulling it off, and taking it.

The little girl tried to reach into his pocket to get her necklace back.

The man talked to the little girl and tried to offer her money, but she refused so the man just left the restaurant, allegedly stealing the necklace.

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Detectives say the family is Catholic and it could be some kind of baptism necklace, but that has not been confirmed with the family.

The crime is theft in the first degree, and detectives say there is probable cause to arrest this man.

“I can’t imagine what her thought process is” Kolby Crossley, public information officer with the Auburn Police Department said. “Obviously it’s a 4-year-old girl with a man stealing a necklace off her person, it has got to be traumatizing for her, and for her family”

The man has been identified as Jose Hidalgo, a regular at the restaurant.

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