ATHENS, Ga. — Police are searching for a carjacker who they say stole a car with a baby in the back seat.
The baby was later found safe in the abandoned car in a Home Depot parking lot in Athens.
Channel 2's Tom Regan has the body camera video of the emotional moments when an officer discovered the baby and got her out of the car.
The sweet video shows the officer unbuckle the baby from her car seat, pick her up and comfort her as she cries.
Police found the child in the car Sunday night. The 11-month-old girl was in her car seat in the back of the car in her family's driveway when her mother ran inside for a moment.
"She got out quickly to get something out of the house," Geoffrey Gilland, with the Athens Clarke-County police, said. "When she came out, the vehicle was gone."
Police launched a massive search. Officers patrolling the Home Depot parking lot spotted the stolen car and the baby inside.
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Video shows them lift her out of her car seat to comfort her until her mom could arrive.
"Oh hey, little one. Hey. It's cold out," the officer says to the child," We're going to put on your hood and keep you warm."
Police suspect the carjacker didn't know the baby was in the back while stealing the car.
Regan talked to shopper Emma Grippen, who said she felt terrible to hear a mother lost her child -- if only for a few minutes.
"The fact that she lost her child like that has to be so horrible," Grippen said. "You don't know who you can trust these days. You go in for two seconds and come out and your whole world has changed."
Police are looking for surveillance video from businesses in the area. Police are not sure if there is more than one thief.
In the meantime, Gilland said he's just glad they were able to reunite mother and child.
"It was a very tender moment between the mother and baby," Gilland said. "Obviously, we were just happy in this case things turned out really well."
Cox Media Group
