A 4-year-old girl who was in the back seat of a vehicle when it was stolen early Thursday morning has been found safe following an hourslong search, police in Illinois said.
No other details on her whereabouts were immediately released.
The abduction was reported at approximately 6:07 a.m. in Rock Island, police said. The vehicle had been left running with the child, Blessing Aoci, inside while her mother went inside a residence when it was stolen by an unknown suspect, according to Illinois State Police.
The vehicle was recovered nearly 20 minutes later, at approximately 6:24 a.m., less than a mile away, though the child was not inside, police said. Three booster seats that had been in the back seat were also missing, according to Rock Island Police Chief Timothy McCloud.
Rock Island police updated Thursday afternoon that Blessing had been found safe.
“Blessing has been located, she is safe, she has been reunited with her mother, and will evaluated by EMS,” the police department said. “Further details will be forthcoming.”
An Amber Alert had been issued for the girl, and police conducted door-to-door canvassing and used drones in the search effort, McCloud said.
Amid the search, McCloud said they haven’t ruled out any possibilities including this being a targeted kidnapping, but police currently believe the abduction to be “inadvertent.”
“We are hoping that there are people, even anonymously, that can give us information about where that child was taken out of the car or where that child is right now,” he said during a press briefing earlier Thursday. “Our hope is that she’s safe inside a house nearby in the neighborhoods, and that’s why we’re going door-to-door with her picture.”
McCloud said the incident “happened in seconds.”
“That’s what we try to tell people, that you can take one child and put them in the car and then go back to the house to get another child, and in the meantime, that car’s gone,” he said. “It’s that fast.”
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