CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Police say a man stole a woman’s car from a local gas station with her child inside.
It happened at an Exxon gas station on Glenwood Drive in west Charlotte at around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday. It’s not the first time NBC Charlotte has reported on children get caught in crimes like this.
A gas station employee told NBC Charlotte the 37-year-old mother went into the store to pay for gas. That’s when the suspect stole her car with the little boy inside.
Police say the suspect drove down the road with the 3-year-old boy in the vehicle the entire time.
Other gas station customers were in shock.
“That’s devastating, especially in my neighborhood,” said customer Cynthia Stafford.
It’s not the first time children have been caught in the middle of a brazen crime. In June, another mom’s car was stolen at a 7-Eleven on Sugar Creek Road. Her two boys, ages 11 and 8, were inside the car at the time.
NBC Charlotte interviewed the mom at the time, who did not want her face shown. She described what the suspect said to her kids.
"'Get out of the car,' and that was it,” the mother said.
Fortunately, her children made it out of the car before the suspect took off.
“I give God all the glory because it could have gone a different way,” the mother previously told NBC Charlotte.
However just last year, another family’s car was targeted at the QuikTrip on Clanton Road. The suspect drove away with their two boys in the car; one jumped out immediately and the other jumped out as the vehicle was traveling down the road. Neither of the children were seriously hurt.
“Even if you’re in a store for a minute or a second, take your children with you,” says Stafford.
Fortunately, the 3-year-old boy was not hurt. So far, no arrests have been made.
Stick with WCNC.com for the latest on this developing story.
