Car Thieves Find Boy in Backseat, Take Him to School

Mom had left child in running car while she worked at Va. post office
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 19, 2015 8:45 AM CST
Car Thieves Find Boy in Backseat, Take Him to School
An unexpected passenger.   (Shutterstock)

An 8-year-old boy got the ride of his life when the car he was sitting in was stolen right before the start of school—and the thieves actually dropped him off at school, the Virginian-Pilot reports. Norfolk Police Department rep Daniel Hudson says the boy's mom has to be at work at the local post office about half an hour before school starts every day, so she lets him sit in her Chevy Impala with the engine running so he can listen to music until it's time to head to class. The child was hanging out in the car Wednesday morning as usual when two men jumped in and took off with the car, and him. "The two guys got [in], saw that he was [there], and … said, 'Oh, we're here to take you to school, where do you go to school?'" Hudson tells WAVY. When the boy told them Ghent Elementary, that's where they dropped him off and where he was found about 10 minutes later, a little scared but unharmed, per the Pilot.

The mom had left her iPhone in the car, so cops were able to use a tracking app to locate the vehicle about 3 miles away, devoid of the suspects. The men could face kidnapping and grand larceny charges if caught, notes WAVY. Meanwhile, police are still trying to see whether the boy's mom will face charges, per WTVR. Hudson tells WAVY it's legal to leave a car running in a parking lot, and it's also legal to leave a child alone. But "investigators are still trying to determine if there was any type of danger to the child while the keys were inside the vehicle, running," he says. "They don't want to jump to conclusions, they want to talk with her, figure things out." Meanwhile, a parent interviewed by WTKR says although she's relieved the boy was OK, the incident is worrisome. "It could have been [a] totally different outcome," she says. (A 3-year-old in a stolen car answered his mom's iPhone and scared the thief off.)

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