Thief steals car with 6-year-old boy inside, drops him off near a school

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    PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) — FOX 12’s Most Wanted stole a car with a little boy inside, and right in front of his grandma who was standing just a few feet away.

Thankfully, 6-year-old Jack is unharmed and back with his family, but it was a frightening Sunday evening.

“I said just a minute, wait right here, I’m going to leave the car running, I’m just going to step out so I can see the other side of the yard,” Jack’s grandma Teri Stinson said.

She and her grandson had stopped by the house she grew up in, on Southeast 157th Avenue and Alder Street just to take a look.

She was only feet away from the car and Jack was in his booster seat playing games on her phone, when all of a sudden, she heard something.

“My car revved up like somebody had just gunned it as far as they could. It startled me so bad that I jumped up on the curb,” Teri said. “I went screaming and yelling up the street, ‘Stop, stop, you’ve got my grandson, stop.’”

She said neighbors heard her and called 911 and police got there right away.

Meanwhile, just around the corner –

“He told me to get out of the car,” Jack said.

Jack said the driver dropped him off near Harold Oliver Elementary School and he used his grandma’s phone to call his dad. Just minutes later while he was still on the phone, police found him unharmed.

“It’s a terrifying moment that I don’t wish upon anybody, but to see that he’s OK and everything else is a blessing,” his dad Matt Stinson said.

Police found the car in same area but say the suspect took off.

“Whoever he is, even though you stole my car, and worse than that you stole my grandson, I don’t care if it was for one minute or one second, you stole him, but I will be forever grateful and thankful you did not hurt him,” Teri said.

Now, they’re all just glad to be reunited. They hope that driver is caught and that their story can be a warning to other parents and grandparents.

“I don’t want him to do it to someone else,” she said. “It will hurt you more than you know.”

Police haven’t released a description of the suspect but ask anyone in the area with information or video to give them a call.

They also remind everyone that especially now as the weather gets colder, thieves are on the lookout for running cars they can steal.

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