PPD: Repo Man Towed Car With Sleeping Seven-Year-Old Inside

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Philadelphia Police are investigating an odd incident that occurred early Thursday morning involving a repo man.

Police say the repo man, identified as Carmino Giannone, attempted to tow a car with a seven-year-old child asleep under a blanket inside. 

The incident reportedly happened around 2:30 a.m. outside a Domino’s Pizza store located at 45th and Chestnut streets in West Philadelphia.

The girl’s 26-year-old mother was apparently clocking out of her job at the Domino’s when Giannone attempted to tow her car, according to police.

Giannone said it was a mistake, that he had paperwork to repossess the vehicle and that he did not see the child asleep under a blanket on the rear seats. According to 6ABC, he told police that the mother ran out of the store as he was hooking up the minivan, and she and others starting yelling about the child inside.

He said he drove away anyway because he “gets screamed at all the time and thought people might be lying,” according to 6ABC. Plus, he said he waited until he turned a corner to get out of the tow truck and check the back seat of the vehicle – and he alleges he still did not see the girl.

The mother called the police, and officers stopped Giannone when he was about a mile-and-a-half away, near 50th Street and Woodland Avenue. They found the girl asleep inside the car.

Chief Inspector Scott Small told CBS3 that the incident “concerns us for several reasons.”

“Why did this 26-year-old mother go inside her place of employment for several minutes leaving her 7-year-old daughter in the backseat, all alone at about 2:30 in the morning?” Small said, according to CBS3. “Also of concern is why did this tow truck driver, who’s a repossessor and he has paperwork to repossess this van, why did the tow truck driver repossess this van without checking to make sure no one was inside?”

No charges have been filed yet in the incident. Police said they’ll release additional information later today.

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