Investigators say Jose Reyes of Chicago took the 3-year-old girl from in front of a condo building.
They say the 28-year-old drove off with the child, disappearing for about 30 minutes before returning her to the building's parking lot.
Police say surveillance video from a resident helped lead to an arrest.
"The community helped us a great deal and that was our intention in the early days of this, was to get that information out so we could obtain those leads," said Mundelein Police Chief Eric Guenther. "In the end this was just some good old-fashioned police work done by some of our investigators."
Reyes is being held on $5 million bond at the Lake County Jail.
