By James Fanelli
Judith Alverangafilled with thankfullness for the institution of the Amber Alert and the hundreds of people who joined in a prayer network says she is sure of one thingher toddler son, Deniro Rhumble, who was abducted in her car on Saturday, will never be left alone again.
For 10 hours on Saturday, her 30-month-old toddler was missing, and for all she knew, alone and exposed to the chilly November evening.
Alveranga, who lives in Jamaica, had driven with her son and a friend to a restaurant on 231st Street and Merrick Boulevard to fetch some take-out food. She and her friend went into the restaurant, while she left Deniro in his car seat with the engine running. She and her friend were barely gone for a minute, Alveranga said, when she saw a heavy-set male car thief jump into her 1996 Nissan Maxima and take off with her child in the back seat.
"Its like your knees are crumbly," said Alveranga, describing the sickening feeling when she saw her child abducted. "Its like a shock."
Alveranga immediately called 911, and, within minutes, a detective was on the scene. Shortly afterward, an Amber Alert was issued. The alert is a public notification of a kidnapping that goes out across airwaves and on electronic highway signs which provides a description of the stolen car and child and notifies drivers to contact police if they have any tips. This system was widely written about in past issues of The Queens Courier for its merits before it was passed into law in 2002. It works on the idea that time is of the essence in child abductions, and information needs to be distributed as quickly as possible.
While her child was gone, Alveranga and her husband, Barrington Rhumble, spent their time at the 105th Precinct police station and gave a press conference where they pleaded for the return of their child. Meanwhile, Detectives were combing the borough and parts of Long Island looking for the missing boy.
"As the hours passed, I was getting hopeless," confessed Deniros father, Barrington Rhumble. "I was losing my mind."
Alveranga, though, said that, while she feared for her childs safety, she had this motherly intuition that he would be all right.
"Deep down I felt like he was OK," she said.
The mother said she had a network of people praying for her sons return. Her main concern, though, was that the car thief would panic when he saw Deniro and abandon her son somewhere, leaving him exposed to the cold.
But, after a 10-hour ordeal,at about 1 a.m. Sunday morning, Alveranga, while police drove her home to check if any messages had been left on her phone, learned her child was safe. A phone call notified her that Officer James Phillips of the 105th had found her Nissan in a Long Island parking lot in Hempstead with the toddler sound asleep.
Alveranga said her little one, who was all smiles and kisses on Monday, was unharmed, although the youngster had his black Harley Davidson jacket stolen.
A day after hearing of the return, District Attorney Richard Brown said that he would not press any charges against the mother for leaving her child unattended.
"There is no purpose to be served by charging the childs mother," said Brown in a statement on Monday. "She did an unthinking thing that could have ended in tragedy. What is important is that her child was returned unharmed."
Learning from her own ordeal, Alveranga is urging others to not make her mistake. She made an emphatic plea, Monday, to all mothers to keep their children close to them at all times. "Not even for a second," she stressed. "Even if its thirty below zero, take them with you. No matter whattake them with you."
