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A routine Instacart delivery turned into every parent’s nightmare after a Georgia mother’s car was stolen with her 2-year-old daughter still inside, as newly released 911 audio and police body camera video capture the frantic rescue.
“Someone just stole my car and it has my 2-year-old daughter in it,” the distraught mother tells an Atlanta 911 dispatcher in audio released by police.
When the dispatcher asks whether the child is inside the vehicle, the mother replies, “Yes, my 2-year-old daughter was in the backseat. I was dropping off an Instacart order and I came back outside and my car is gone. My daughter was inside.”
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Moments later, she cries out again, “My daughter was inside!”
The ordeal unfolded around 4:36 p.m. on July 30, according to the Atlanta Police Department.
Police said the vehicle had been left running with the toddler inside while her mother delivered an Instacart order.
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Officers with the department’s Auto Crimes Enforcement Unit immediately began searching for the vehicle and used the city’s license plate readers to locate the car, the suspect and the child in under 15 minutes, according to police.
Body camera video released by the department shows officers surrounding the stolen vehicle and ordering the driver to raise his hands and get out.
“Hands up! Hands up!” an officer shouts.
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“Hands on the window now,” another officer orders. “What you’re gonna do is you’re going to get out and face away from me, you understand me? Get out the car, slow. Put your hands behind your back.”
The video shows officers taking the suspect into custody as the toddler cries nearby and her mother works to calm her.
“It’s okay, baby. It’s okay, baby,” the mother can be heard saying.
Moments later, an officer radios, “The child is okay. The child’s okay.”
Police identified the suspect as 21-year-old Saleem Martin.
Martin was charged with kidnapping, theft by taking, simple battery, entering an automobile, cruelty to children and criminal attempt to commit a felony, according to police.
Authorities said the toddler was unharmed and reunited with her parents.
According to an arrest warrant obtained by Atlanta NBC affiliate 11Alive, the child’s mother later noticed that the bottom of her daughter’s dress was unbuttoned.
The warrant alleges the toddler told her mother “the man did it,” referring to the man who had been driving the car.
Martin allegedly had both hands on the child’s torso when officers found him and was trying to duck down and hide between the seats, according to the warrant cited by the outlet.
The Atlanta Police Department’s Special Victims Unit was brought into the investigation.
Martin allegedly told investigators he had been touching the child because he was trying to calm her down, according to 11Alive.
He also allegedly claimed he jumped into the vehicle because he was trying to “get back to New Jersey” and did not realize the toddler was in the backseat until after he drove away.
According to the arrest warrant, Martin also allegedly told investigators he realized there was an iPad inside the vehicle and discarded it because he believed it could be used to track him.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Atlanta Police Department for comment.
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