A one-year-old child is safe Tuesday morning after a harrowing ordeal in Surrey B.C.
Police said at 8:35 a.m. they received a report of a vehicle stolen in the Cloverdale area while a child was still in their car seat in the back.
Police said the vehicle was parked and left running in the driveway of a home.
Surrey RCMP immediately deployed multiple resources including all available frontline officers, plain-clothes units and the Lower Mainland Integrated Police Dog Service.
“There wasn’t a single RCMP officer out there this morning in Surrey that wasn’t looking for this car,” Surrey RCMP Sgt. Elenore Sturko said.
An Amber Alert was also issued due to the age of the victim.
At 9:20 a.m., a bystander spotted the vehicle abandoned with the baby still inside the vehicle, police said.
The Amber Alert was then cancelled.
“The family was absolutely, as you can imagine, distraught and concerned and very, very anxious to get reunited with their child, as any parent would be,” Sturko said.
The baby was checked over by BC Emergency Health Services and was not physically injured, police said. The family involved has been provided support through victim services.
Police say officers are still looking for the suspect or suspects.
Anyone with more information is asked to contact the Surrey RCMP at 604-599-0502. If you wish to make an anonymous report contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS or www.solvecrime.ca.
— With files from Jon Azpiri