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Crime, Law and Justice
MPR News Staff

Authorities say missing Minneapolis toddler has been found safe

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Updated: Feb. 7, 9:55 a.m.

A frantic search for a 1-year-old boy who was in the back seat of an SUV stolen Saturday in Minneapolis ended with the toddler found "smiling and happy" in the vehicle.

A resident who had seen an Amber Alert called 911 after spotting the vehicle near a church along Brooklyn Boulevard in Brooklyn Center. Responding officers found the boy in the Jeep Grand Cherokee just after 2:30 p.m. The boy had been reporting missing just after 12:15 p.m.

The subzero conditions brought added urgency to the search. Minneapolis police spokesman John Elder said the person who stole the SUV left it running with the toddler inside; the suspect fled on foot

"Our officers were beyond overjoyed to see the little guy smiling and happy," Elder said. "This is a great outcome to what was a terrifying episode for everybody — and the poor parents, to have to deal with that for that period of time has to be horrific."

The toddler was taken to a local hospital as a precaution but appeared to be fine, Elder said.

The resident who spotted the stolen vehicle and called 911 was Barbara Gusse of Brooklyn Center.

"The Amber Alert came up on my phone and I'd seen (the) white Cherokee," Gusse told KARE 11. "So I took my binoculars, because I am a bird watcher, and it had the same license plate that was on my phone so I called the cops right away.”

"I watch my community. I watch out for people," Gusse told the TV station. "I'm just glad that baby is OK.”

Elder said the search drew "every available officer" from across the city of Minneapolis and from other agencies, combing streets, alleys and parking lots in a grid-pattern search. The Minnesota State Patrol's helicopter also helped in the search.

Elder noted that many of those officers are parents.

"These types of calls are very difficult for our officers to deal with," Elder said. "The sense of urgency was palpable in radio transmissions — band in the number of officers from different precincts and different departments offering up assistance."

According to police, the boy's mother said she'd left him in the running vehicle outside their home on the 4200 block of Humboldt Avenue North when she stepped back inside to retrieve an item. She came back out to find the vehicle and her son gone.

Elder said there was no interaction between the woman and the suspect.

Investigators were processing the vehicle for forensic evidence. Police did not release a description of the suspect; there were no arrests in the case at last report.

Minneapolis has seen more than 400 vehicle thefts so far in 2021 — though Elder noted that it's about a 7 percent reduction over the same period in 2020. About 75 percent of auto thefts in the city involve vehicles that were left running unattended.