An Albuquerque Police Department officer’s lapel camera captured the incredible moment he found a 3-year-old girl alone in a “cold” parking lot after she was abducted by a car thief this past Saturday evening.
The 3-year-old girl, who the APD has named Caroline, was found sitting in a vacant lot in Albuquerque, New Mexico, after 1 a.m. on Sunday. According to APD lead public information officer Tanner Tixier, she was wearing a purple jacket and black boots.
“She was freezing and scared, but thankfully not injured or suffering from hypothermia when she was found,” Tixier told ABC News today. “All things considered, she was in pretty good shape, given what she’d been through.”
Tixier said that Caroline was taken by an unidentified man around 8:30 a.m. local time on Saturday at a grocery store about two miles away from the lot she was found in.
Tixier explained that the three-year-old was in the backseat of the car with her seatbelt on when her mother quickly stepped out to fill a water jug only 10 feet away. A man soon got into the driver’s seat and left, which upset Caroline’s mother.
The police immediately issued an amber alert after the mother reported the car theft.
The police were able to locate the stolen vehicle near a local thrift store, but the suspect and Caroline were not in it, according to a Facebook post by the police department. Officer Chris Poccia later found the young girl during a coordinated search of the area.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the suspect was still on the run. However, according to the police, he was caught on grainy surveillance footage from the grocery store where Caroline was initially taken.