***This is definitely a lesson for parents – never to leave their children alone in a car, even if it’s just for a few minutes.****
A 4-year-old California boy reportedly sustained only minor injuries over the weekend when he jumped from a moving vehicle during a carjacking, authorities say.
According to Huffington Post, Peyton Phan and his mother, Hahn Tran, were visiting relatives in Stockton on Sunday, and had placed her son in the back of her Honda Civic. Prior to driving off, Phan’s mother went back into the residence to say goodbye to her family, Stockton police Officer Joe Silva said in a press release.
However, an opportunistic thief jumped into the driver’s seat and took off with the frightened child, who was still strapped inside the car.
“He was very scared,” Silva told The Associated Press. “He didn’t know what this man was going to do to him.”
A neighbor Lawrence Collins told Sacramento’s CBS13 he was outside at the time of the incident and saw the boy exiting the vehicle.
“I’d seen a car come flying real fast … He was going like 60, 70 miles per hour,” he said. “He turned the corner so fast [that] I thought the kid just fell out.”
Phan, according to Silva, only sustained cuts and scrapes to his feet and legs when he jumped out of the moving vehicle. His mother told KCRA 3 she is thankful that her son was quick to think.
“I am so very proud of him and we are so blessed of how smart he is,” Tran said. “You’ve got to be really proud of him … I mean, even as (an) adult, that’s probably not a reaction we would have in that kind of moment.”
The suspect, described as a 40-something Hispanic male, is yet to be identified, and authorities believe he was aware the boy was in the vehicle at the time he took off. Tran’s vehicle, which is a 2001 silver Honda Civic 4-door, with California license plate 7EDX752, has not been recovered as well.
Anyone with information has been asked to call the Stockton Police Department at 209-937-8377.