VIDEO: Surveillance of car stolen with sleeping child inside
NORTHEAST PHILADELPHIA -- Philadelphia police say someone stole a car early Tuesday morning while a 6-year-old boy was sleeping in the backseat.
The child is safe and back with his family, but police are still looking for whoever was responsible.
It happened around 2:20 a.m. outside the 7-Eleven at Oxford Avenue and Bridge Street in Northeast Philadelphia.
Grainy surveillance video shows the silver Honda parked outside the store when a white car pulls up. A man then jumps in the Honda and both cars pull out of the lot.
A man went running out of the convenience store - bag in hand - chasing his stolen Honda. What he knew, and the thief apparently did not, was that his 6-year-old stepson was asleep on the backseat of the vehicle now speeding away.
Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small explains, "Fortunately, it had a unique description. So, our police radio room did a great job putting out the description of the vehicle."
Officers citywide kept an eye out for the car while investigators reviewed the video at the store.
Making things worse, the child suffers from asthma and did not have his inhaler.
Luckily, within a short amount of time, officers came upon the stolen car.
Chief Inspector Small says, "In about a half hour, Philadelphia police, they did a great job, they found the vehicle in the 4300 block of Leiper Street, which is about two miles south of this location. The vehicle - the engine was still running. The child was in the backseat still sleeping."
Officers brought the boy back to the 7-Eleven where he was reunited with his mother and stepfather.
Police are processing the stolen Honda, looking for fingerprints and DNA as they try to track down the thief.
If you have any information about this incident, police want to hear from you.
