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Police search for gas station kidnapping suspect

Posted at 9:19 PM, Feb 24, 2017
and last updated 2017-02-25 08:41:32-05

CINCINNATI -- Police said Friday night that they were searching for a suspect who stole two cars -- one of which had a child inside.

According to Lt. David Scofield, the suspect abducted a sleeping 3-year-old boy when they stole a car left running in the parking lot of an Exxon station on Werk Road. 

They drove only a short distance, however, before abandoning the vehicle with the child inside in a Westbrook Drive apartment complex parking lot -- at which point they promptly stole another car and made a getaway from their getaway.

That second car belonged to Dinastie Allen, who had been visiting her sister at the complex.

"I was in there less than five minutes," she said. "I come out and my car is gone."

She discovered the abandoned vehicle with the toddler inside while calling police to report the theft of her own vehicle.

"I wasn’t even worried about my car anymore just because I’d seen that baby," Allen said. "I would rather (they take) my car than they leave the baby where he wouldn’t have been safe."

The child was safely reunited with his family, police said.

Authorities had not located the suspect as of 9 p.m. Friday.