Sahara Little has been found after an overnight search.
After a frantic search and an Amber Alert, 6-year-old Sahara Little was found safely Wednesday morning, Philadelphia police said.
A search was launched after the girl was in the backseat of a car when it was stolen outside of a pizza shop, according to police. She had last been seen on the 5600 block of Greene Street in the city’s Germantown section.
Just before 8:30 a.m., police tweeted that they had found Little, along with the 2007 Scion TC she had been in as it was stolen. Family had been searching for Little with police when a family member spotted the car with the girl inside at Broad Street and Nedro Avenue, on the border of the city’s Ogontz and Fern Rock neighborhoods, police said.
Little’s mother had told police that she had run to get a pizza from Giovanni’s Pizza and had left Little in the back with the engine running.
Police were still investigating the incident and no arrests had been made.
“So we believe that this car was stolen as an opportunity because the engine was running. The door was unlocked. The individual who stole the car may not have known there was a 6-year-old child,” Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small told 6ABC. “So hopefully he abandons the car once he finds out there’s a 6-year-old child in it.”
Small told NBC10 that police were interviewing pizzeria employees as part of the investigation and provided a brief description of the person who allegedly stole the car with Little inside.
Little’s case was the fifth time a child had been abducted while inside a stolen car in the city this year, according to Kids and Cars, a website focusing on education and public awareness for child safety with cars. All five children were returned safely after being taken.
According to the site, 112 children have been taken in stolen cars across the country.
