Child safe after being taken in stolen car in Atlanta

ATLANTA — A young child is safe and back with her parents after a kidnapping and joy ride.

Police say a thief jumped in a running car and took off with the girl still inside Tuesday morning.

The mother put her daughter in the back of their mini-van outside a home on Atlanta Avenue in the Peoplestown neighborhood, according to investigators. Just after 8 a.m., she told investigators while standing outside the van, a man got in and drove off with the girl still in the backseat.

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APD officers responded and immediately started a canvass of the area and coordinated search for the van and child.

It didn’t take long until officers spotted the stolen car abandoned just outside the Forest Cove Apartments behind the Atlanta Penitentiary, more than two and half miles away.

Police found the girl unharmed still inside the mini-van. She was checked out at the scene and is now back with her parents.

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The little girl’s father told Channel 2′s Steve Gelhbach that she is just fine.

Detectives went through evidence taken from the scene and van and are trying to identify the kidnapping suspect.

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