Children found safe after being kidnapped in stolen car

EAST POINT, Ga. - Three children have been found safe after being kidnapped in a stolen car.

East Point police said it all started Tuesday night around 10:15 when a woman went to a Citgo gas station on Stanton Road with three children inside her vehicle. The kids were asleep and the mother didn't want to wake them, so she told investigators she left them in the car when she went into the store.  

Police told FOX 5 an old Chrysler 300 pulled up and a man jumped out of that vehicle. He then stole the mother's car with the children still inside, according to investigators.

An East Point police officer spotted the car at the Valero on Campbellton Road in Southwest Atlanta. The children weren't harmed, but the suspect got away. Investigators said he jumped back into the Chrysler that brought him to the Citgo where the kidnapping took place.

According to police, the suspect apparently left the vehicle in a lit area, so the kids could be easily found. The woman who parked the car is the mother to one of the kids. All three were reunited with loved ones.