Father arrested after 13-month-old boy was found alive after spending nearly 2 days trapped inside a locked impounded car

Randy Wimbley at WXYZ-TV Detroit reported a case that feels almost impossible to process in real time: a 13-month-old boy was found alive after spending nearly two days trapped inside a locked, impounded vehicle at an Eastpointe tow lot, and now his father is facing a felony child abuse charge.

The story starts with what Wimbley described as a “head-scratching” chain of events, because the car wasn’t just sitting somewhere unnoticed – it was towed by police, moved to a lot, and sat there long enough that the child was inside from Thursday night until Saturday afternoon, according to investigators cited in the report.

And while the father’s decision is now the center of a criminal case, Wimbley’s report made it clear there’s a second argument running underneath it: whether the response by Harper Woods police was thorough enough before the car was ordered to a tow yard.

The Charge, The Timeline, And A Child Found Crying In A Locked Car

Wimbley said Orlander Linson Jr. is charged with second-degree child abuse, accused of leaving his toddler in an illegally parked vehicle in Harper Woods last Thursday night. The vehicle was then impounded the next day and taken to an Eastpointe tow lot, turning a routine tow into something far more serious once everyone realized the child had never been removed.

Investigators told the court the toddler was inside the car from Thursday night to Saturday afternoon. When officers finally located him at the tow lot, Wimbley reported they found the boy crying and pinned between a car seat and the passenger door, which suggests he wasn’t just sitting upright and visible in the back seat the way people might imagine when they hear “child left in a car.”

That detail matters because it helps explain how a quick glance could miss him, while also raising the obvious question: if a child can be hidden from view by the geometry of a seat and door, is a simple “look through the windows” approach enough when you’re about to tow a vehicle?

The outcome is the part nobody can ignore. The child was alive, recovered, and officers got there before the situation became a fatality, but the fact he survived nearly two days in those conditions is the kind of “how is that possible?” moment that leaves a city staring at the same facts and drawing different conclusions about blame.

Court: Prosecutors Push For A High Bond, Defense Calls It A “Split-Second” Mistake

In court, Wimbley reported investigators pushed for a high cash bond, and they didn’t just argue the seriousness of the incident – they argued the risk of Linson disappearing if released.

Deputy Chief Ted Stager told the court, according to Wimbley, that Linson has 10 active warrants and does not have a residence at this time, adding that if he bonded out, prosecutors were concerned he could be “in the wind” and difficult to locate.

Linson’s court-appointed attorney, Davonne Darby, presented the defense posture as one of a terrible mistake rather than a malicious act. Darby told the court Linson works security at Little Caesars Arena, is a father of five, and understands this was “a bad decision made in a split second,” as she argued for a personal bond so he could “get back to his family” while the case proceeds.

The judge didn’t go that route. Wimbley said Linson remains in jail on a $100,000 bond and is due back in court March 11.

It’s also worth noting what Wimbley emphasized by omission: police have not said what Linson was doing at the moment the child was allegedly left in the car. That gap is fueling speculation, but it’s also the kind of missing fact that tends to matter most once a case moves from TV headlines to courtroom proof.

How The Missing Child Report Finally Connected The Dots

The break in the case, as Wimbley laid it out, came from the child’s mother walking into the Detroit Police Department’s Ninth Precinct earlier Saturday to report her son missing. A detective then learned Harper Woods police had impounded her boyfriend’s vehicle and suspected the toddler might be inside.

Harper Woods Police Chief Jason Hammerle credited that detective’s work, with Wimbley quoting him as saying the detective did an “outstanding job” locating the car because it wasn’t yet registered to Linson in a way that made it easy to track.

That small detail – registration not being straightforward – helps explain why this wasn’t as simple as typing a plate into a computer and instantly finding the answer, but it also highlights how close this came to ending differently. If that detective doesn’t connect those dots quickly, this becomes a tragedy instead of a rescue.

From the outside, it reads like luck and persistence collided at the last moment. From the inside, it sounds like one investigator made the kind of logical leap you hope happens every time a child is missing, even when the trail is messy.

The Police Department’s Explanation: “Visual Inspection,” No Lockout Tools, Policy Followed

The most contentious part of Wimbley’s report was the explanation from Harper Woods police about what happened at the moment the vehicle was impounded.

Chief Hammerle said the officer who impounded the vehicle conducted a visual inspection but did not see the child inside, and because the car was locked, it was not “thoroughly inventoried,” as Wimbley reported.

When Wimbley asked directly whether officers had lockout tools to get inside the car, Hammerle’s answer was blunt: “We do not possess those types of tools.” He went further and said he was satisfied the officer followed department policy, explaining that officers cannot enter or damage locked vehicles, and that a visual inspection from the outside was, in his view, enough to meet the policy standard.

That’s the moment where a lot of people stop listening to the legal language and start thinking in plain human terms: if you can’t open a locked car, you can still pause the tow, call someone who can, or treat “locked vehicle” as a reason to slow down, not speed up.

And to be fair, departments do have policies because officers can’t legally tear into every vehicle without cause, but this case is exactly why the public response can be so heated. People are not hearing “policy followed” as reassurance; they’re hearing it as proof the policy is too thin for real life.

A Veteran Law Enforcement Voice Says Harper Woods “Dropped The Ball”

Wimbley also interviewed retired Detroit Assistant Police Chief Steve Dolunt, who didn’t mince words about what he believes should have happened.

Dolunt told Wimbley that while police couldn’t get into the car immediately, tow yards typically have tools – he mentioned Slim Jims or “some way to get in the cars.” In his view, even if the car wasn’t flagged and the impounding officer thought it was routine, that assumption should not end the inquiry when the stakes could be life and death.

Dolunt’s bottom line, as Wimbley reported it, was that Harper Woods “dropped the ball,” even as he acknowledged the outcome could have been worse and officers got to the child before he died.

That kind of critique hits harder because it’s not coming from an internet commenter; it’s coming from someone who has worked inside the system and is essentially saying, “I’ve seen how this should work, and this wasn’t it.”

The Two Tracks This Case Is Now On

Wimbley’s reporting makes it clear this story is now running on two tracks at the same time.

The first is the criminal case against Linson, where the central allegation is as stark as it sounds: a father left a 13-month-old child alone in a car long enough for the vehicle to be towed and sit in a lot while the child remained inside. Even if the defense frames it as a “split-second” lapse, the timeline investigators described turns it into something far larger than a momentary mistake, because the consequences didn’t stop when the father walked away.

The second track is the institutional question that won’t go away: what should police do, every single time, before ordering a vehicle to be towed, especially when the vehicle is locked and visibility is limited?

It’s easy for agencies to retreat into policy language after a near-miss, but this is one of those cases where policy feels like a shield, not an answer. If a child can survive nearly two days trapped in a locked car at a tow lot, then the uncomfortable truth is that “survived” is the best-case outcome, not the expected one, and the next case might not end with a crying baby and a rescue.

Wimbley reported Child Protective Services is now involved and the child is recovering, which is the only detail in this story that sounds even remotely like relief. Everything else reads like a warning about how fast a routine tow can turn into a life-or-death emergency, and how unforgiving the system becomes when one bad decision meets one missed check.