... As it turned out, there was a woman in the right place at the right time, and that’s what ended the incident.

Da’Merion White was in the back of his mother’s Jeep Saturday afternoon when it was stolen near 42nd and Humboldt in Minneapolis. The Minneapolis Police Department says the mom buckled him in, then left the car running while she ran back inside to get something. The car and the boy were gone when she came back out.

An AMBER Alert was issued. That’s when a woman in Brooklyn Center saw the car idling in a parking lot across the street from her house.

“I was crying. I called my daughter because I have nine grandchildren and I called her and said ‘Honey this car’s been sitting here for a while.’ She said call the cops, so I did,” Barb Gusse said. “I’m just happy because I could hear that little thing crying when they opened the door.”

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John Elder, Director of Police Information says there have been 401 cars stolen since the start of the year. He says 75% of auto thefts occur when a car is running and occupied. There have been several other instances when a car has been stolen with a child inside.

In addition to charges of felony auto theft, the suspect also faces kidnapping charges.

... “I was out feeding my birds, because it's so cold,” she said. “You know you have to keep them fed, you know.”

That’s when she glanced across the street to the car lot outside Cross of Glory Lutheran Church, where she saw a white Jeep Grand Cherokee, its engine running.

It sat there for 20 minutes, but Gusse says she couldn’t tell if anyone was inside.

Then an Amber Alert went off on her phone detailing how a Jeep was stolen from Humboldt Avenue in north Minneapolis around 12:17 p.m. and that 1-year-old Da’Merion White was in the back seat.

“I’m a bird watcher, so I got my binoculars and I looked over and it was the same license plate that was on the phone,” Gusse said. “So I called the police department right away.”

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