Thieves abandon 1-year-old boy on sidewalk after stealing his mother's car, Philadelphia police say

A 1-year-old boy was reunited with his mother on Tuesday after thieves stole her car while the child was still inside, Philadelphia police say.

The theft happened around 11 p.m. Monday on the 3400 block of Henry Avenue in the city's East Falls neighborhood.

The boy's mother left the child inside her Honda sedan with the engine running while she went inside a home to visit relatives.

That's when someone jumped in the car and drove off. Fortunately, the baby's grandmother found the boy a short time later, sitting on a sidewalk about a block away.

"We believe that someone stole this Honda, probably not realizing that there was 1-year-old boy inside," Chief Inspector Scott Small said. "After they stole the car and drove it just one block, they took the 1-year-old boy out of the vehicle and just put the child on the sidewalk."

The mother had a tracking device in the car and police later found it abandoned in West Philadelphia on the 4000 block of Parkside Avenue. 

Detectives are now looking at surveillance video to try to identify suspects.