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Woman Arrested After Claiming Child Taken In Stolen Car

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - A woman has been arrested in connection with a reported stolen vehicle with a child in it.

It started Sunday night, around 8:15 p.m., at the Sunoco gas station on SW 112th Avenue and Old Cutler Road.

Antoinette Rowan MUG
37-year-old Antoinette Rowan. (Source: Miami-Dade County Corrections).

Police said the child's grandmother, identified as 37-year-old Antoinette Rowan, started corresponding online about a transaction with the man who allegedly stole her car.

The man, identified as Antonio Monzon, was supposed to come to her house but plans changed and Rowan told authorities she picked him up with her 3-year-old child, not her grandchild, in the backseat.

Monzon has a lengthy criminal past.

The child was never in the car, rather at home with his mother, Rowan's daughter.

They went to the Walmart at 211th and Dixie Highway and then drove to a nearby by Sunoco gas station.

Rowan told police when she went inside, Monzon drove off with her car and child. She immediately contacted the police.

"That's something we can't take lightly," said Alvaro Zabaleta with Miami-Dade Police. "The last thing we want is another child's face on a milk carton because they were abducted."

Monday afternoon Miami-Dade police detectives determined that the child had never been in the car throughout the entire ordeal.

Rowan was arrested for filing a false report. She thought police would find her stolen car quicker if they thought it contained a missing child.

Police are still looking Rowan's a 2014 black four-door Hyundai and Monzon. The license plate number is Z59 FLZ.

If you have any information, call Crime Stoppers at (305) 471-TIPS.

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