A 2-year-old boy who was in a minivan when it was stolen from a school parking lot in Buena Park Tuesday morning was found and two people involved in the theft and kidnapping were taken into custody thanks to a good Samaritan.
The silver 2017 Toyota Sienna was stolen around 9:30 a.m. from the parking lot of Emery School, located on the 8600 block of Somerset Street, according to the Buena Park Police Department.
The boy’s mother, who has another child at the school, left the minivan running in the parking lot with the toddler inside as she went inside the school to drop something off, police detailed.
As she was coming back out to the parking lot, she saw a man driving off with her minivan.
The boy, Ian Eo, and the vehicle were eventually found, police said in an update.
A person found the minivan that had been dropped off with the child inside at Gilbert and Brookhurst streets in Anaheim and alerted authorities.
Then, about a mile away, Daniel Espinosa came face-to-face with one of the suspects when they came into an Anaheim computer store where he works.
Espinosa said the man suspected in the theft and kidnapping tired to use the mother’s credit card.
“As soon as he tapped and made that purchase, I was contacted by the police,” he told KTLA. Espinosa was told by police what had occurred and they asked him to take down the man’s license plate number.
Espinosa, a father of three, then tried to coax the man back into the store, but he and his accomplice took off in a car.
He ended up following them and told police where they were heading. Police eventually caught up to the suspects and took them into custody.
Espinosa said the boy’s family came by the store later to thank him for his efforts.
“They gave me a big hug and they thanked me,” he said. “It was really nice.”