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A 2-year-old girl was safely reunited with her parents after Atlanta police located a stolen vehicle and arrested a suspect less than 15 minutes after the child was reported missing, authorities said.
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Officers responded at about 4:30 p.m. local time July 30 to a report of a vehicle theft with a child inside in Midtown Atlanta, a busy commercial and residential neighborhood, according to the Atlanta Police Department. A preliminary investigation revealed that the vehicle had been left running with the toddler inside when it was stolen.
In a recorded 911 call released by police on July 31, the child’s mother told the dispatcher that someone had stolen her vehicle while she was making an Instacart delivery.
“Someone just stole my car, and it has my 2-year-old daughter in it,” the mother told the 911 dispatcher through tears, according to the recording. “My 2-year-old daughter was in the back seat. I was dropping off an Instacart order and I came back outside, and my car is gone. My daughter was inside.”
Using the city’s license plate reader system, officers located the vehicle, the suspect and the child in a short timeframe in a parking lot about three miles northwest of where the vehicle was stolen, police said in a statement.
Body camera footage released by the police department shows officers approaching the vehicle and ordering the suspect to surrender.
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“Don’t move! Hands on the window now!” an officer can be heard shouting before directing the suspect to exit the vehicle. As officers took the suspect into custody, a child could be heard crying in the background, according to the body camera footage.
Another officer is heard reassuring the toddler, saying, “It’s OK, baby. It’s OK,” the footage shows.
The child was unharmed in the incident and reunited with her parents, police said in a news release.
Police identified the suspect as 21-year-old Saleem Martin, who has been charged with kidnapping, theft by taking, simple battery, entering an automobile, cruelty to children and criminal attempt to commit a felony. Police said the investigation remains ongoing.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Atlanta police rescue toddler from stolen car, arrest suspect
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Reporting by Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY / USA TODAY
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect
This story was originally published August 2, 2026 at 3:17 PM.