Toddler found safe after LV carjacking

A 21/2-year-old boy was found unharmed about an hour after his mother's car was stolen with the boy inside it Sunday night, police and family members said.

The boy, Anthony Gutierrez, was sleeping in a child safety seat in the back of his 19-year-old mother's Hyundai sedan when she stopped to get change at a car wash at 6144 Charleston Boulevard near Jones Boulevard about 7 p.m., Las Vegas police said.

She left Anthony in the car because he had a cold and needed to rest, the boy's 18-year-old father, Roger Gutierrez, said. He was at work at a home improvement store at the time of the carjacking, he said.

While his wife was away from the car, a man jumped into it and started driving away, police said.

The mother grabbed onto the door of the car and screamed at the suspect to let her get Anthony out of the Hyundai. "She said 'Just let me take my baby,'" Gutierrez said.

The suspect didn't stop and dragged Anthony's mother for several feet before she let go and the man sped away, Gutierrez said.

She suffered scrapes and bruises but was not seriously injured.

Gutierrez was contacted and for the next hour, he and his wife anxiously awaited news about their only child.

"It was terrible," he said.

About 8 p.m., a woman who lives at the corner of G Street and Morgan Avenue, more than six miles from the scene of the carjacking, called police after she heard a child crying in the back seat of a parked vehicle.

Police arrived and found Anthony in his mother's car. The carjacker had fled.

About an hour after he was found, Anthony was running and playing in front of the house where police found him.

"This is the way I wanted it to turn out," Gutierrez said.

Contact reporter David Kihara at dkihara@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-4638.