Police in Atlanta quickly managed to track down an alleged kidnapper thanks to Find My iPhone.
Dramatic body cam footage shows the moment officers intercepted a man accused of a carjacking — while a 9-year old boy was still inside. The incident happened on April 4; the boys mother had pulled into a store parking lot for a quick stop, but left hers keys inside with the engine still running.
The suspect jumped into the car and sped off, as the frantic mother called 911.
Thinking quickly, she activated the app tracking her son’s GPS, and handed it to one of the officers; he called for back-up as several patrol cars chased down the moving dot.
The footage shows the moment one of the officers spotted the stolen car, spinning it off the road with a pit maneuver.
As he is dragged from the vehicle at gunpoint, the suspect protests his innocence … regarding the car crash. “You tried to kills us! Oh my gosh! Why would y’all do that man?” he cried. “He ran into us — he hit us!”
Meanwhile, the terrified boy can be seen scrambling out the back window, and escaping into the arms of another officer.
The child was taken to hospital as a precaution.
The suspect, later identified as Darius White, was charged with kidnapping, cruelty towards children and theft by taking, CNN reported.
“We’ve seen carjackings with children in the back, whether the carjacker knew the child was in there or not. We’ve seen a spike in these types of cases,” Callahan Walsh of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children told ABC7.
“In fact, last year, we had 34 AMBER alerts that were issued on carjackings, where a child was involved,” he added. He also said giving a child an old phone is not a bad idea in case of emergencies.
“What parents should be aware of is that if they have an old cell phone, they can give that to their child. Even if that phone doesn’t have a data plan, that phone can still dial 911,” he said.
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