CHUBBUCK — A 37-year old local woman was arrested Sunday after police say she stole a car with a baby in the backseat.

Rikki Rae Johnson, of Pocatello, has been charged with felony grand theft in relation to the incident and the baby was reunited with family very shortly after the vehicle was stolen, according to police and court records the Idaho State Journal obtained Monday.

The incident began to unfold shortly before 8 p.m. Sunday when a man called Chubbuck police reporting someone had stolen his silver Kia Sorento from the driveway of his relative’s Chubbuck home with his 1-year-old child in the backseat of the car, police said.

The father told police he was at his father-in-law’s residence on Taylor Avenue loading items into the vehicle while it warmed up in the driveway with the infant in the backseat when the theft occurred, according to court records.

A Chubbuck police officer responded with lights and sirens to the Chubbuck home and was speaking with the father when he received notification from dispatch about 10 minutes after the theft was reported that the father-in-law had located the abandoned Kia just north of the intersection of Hiline Road and Reservation Road, police said.

Chubbuck police said in a Monday morning news release that officers arrived to find the infant still sound asleep in the backseat.

While officers secured the scene, Bannock County Sheriff’s deputies deployed K-9 units and a drone to search for the suspect, according to court records.

Officers contacted a resident of a home on Hiline Road just south of where the vehicle was found and the homeowner told them he gave a woman a ride to a trailer just west of the KOA campground on Pocatello Creek Road and provided them with both a description and a photo of the woman, later identified as Johnson, using his doorbell camera, the report says.

Bannock County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to the trailer and took Johnson, who was wearing different clothing, into custody on an outstanding warrant, police said. A Chubbuck officer responded to the trailer and confirmed Johnson matched the woman in the photo and located a black zip-up jacket, black beanie and black leggings inside the home, according to the report.

Johnson was then transported to the Chubbuck Police Department for questioning by a detective where she initially denied being on Hiline Road and insisted she had been home eating dinner with her family around 6 p.m, the police report says.

Johnson initially denied taking the vehicle but eventually admitted to the theft, telling officers she had been at the casino in Fort Hall before getting into a physical altercation with her boyfriend inside a vehicle while driving home on Interstate 15, police said.

Johnson showed officers red scratches on her arms and head and said she demanded to get out of the car before being let out in the area of New Day Parkway, according to the report.

Johnson told officers she was trying to get away from her boyfriend when she entered a neighborhood, saw the running vehicle in a driveway, jumped in and drove away, insisting that she did not know there was a baby in the backseat while she was driving the car, police said.

Johnson was then transported to Bannock County Jail in Pocatello and booked on the felony grand theft charge and her outstanding misdemeanor drug-related warrant from a previous case, court records show.

In addition to Chubbuck police and Bannock County sheriff’s deputies, the investigation involved the Fort Hall Police Department, Idaho State Police and Pocatello Police Department.

Johnson appeared before 6th District Magistrate Judge David A. Hooste for an arraignment hearing on Monday where her bond was set at $25,000.

She is scheduled to appear in court again on Feb. 4 for a preliminary hearing. Prosecutors will attempt to present sufficient evidence to elevate the case from magistrate to district court for trial.

If convicted of the felony grand theft charge, Johnson faces no less than one year and up to 14 years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.