NEW ORLEANS — A mother was reunited with her 5-year-old shortly after the child was taken when her car was stolen Friday night in Mid-City, an NOPD spokesperson wrote.
The mother left her sleeping 5-year-old in her car and left it running outside of a restaurant to pick up a food order near Bienville Street and N Norman C. Francis Parkway, according to the spokesperson.
After leaving her child in the parked car and entering the restaurant, the woman saw two people get in her vehicle, investigators said.
The mother tried to stop the people who took her car, but they drove off.
New Orleans Police Department investigators were on scene around 7:24 p.m. Less than 30 minutes later, NOPD investigators learned that a suspicious vehicle was left running with a child inside in the Bayou St. John neighborhood.
The car was left at North Dupree and Desoto Streets, Paris Holmes, a spokeswoman with the New Orleans Police Department's Public Affairs Office.
"Shortly after, officers were able to reunite the child with his mother," Holmes wrote. "The child was unharmed in this incident."
NOPD investigators classified the incident as a simple kidnapping.
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