Thieves quickly ditch van with sleeping children inside

OGDEN — Two thieves didn't get very far with a stolen van in Ogden on Monday before they discovered they were committing a graver crime than they intended.

Police say around 3 p.m., a woman and her friend were unloading groceries from a van in a driveway near Grant Ave. and 32nd St., while her 2-month-old son and her friend's 2-year-old daughter slept in the vehicle.

"She hears the van start up, she runs outside, they see the van heading eastbound on 32nd St.," said Ogden Police Lt. Danielle Croyle.

Police say as the thieves drove away, they must have looked in the back seat and spotted the two kids because they ditched the van only a half block away from where they took it.

The daughter of one of the women said it all happened very fast.

"It happened in the blink of an eye," Guadalupe Bravo said. "She came inside screaming that someone had kidnapped the kids. That's when we all went out and called 911."

Police quickly began a search while neighbors tried to comfort the family as the children's sibling worried.

"I saw the little girl standing with the neighbors, and she was just crying hysterically," neighbor Tamra Lucero said. "She just kept saying, ‘They took my baby brother! They took my baby brother!'"

In less than a half hour, a school bus aide listening to a scanner spotted the van near the intersection of 32nd Street and Keisel Avenue — only a half block from the driveway where the thieves swiped the van.

"The windows were tinted, but we could see that the toddler was inside. We could see the little booties of the baby, so we knew that the baby was in there," said the bus aide, who didn't want to be identified.

She said that after they spotted the van, she and her co-worker told police. Officers responded to find the kids still sleeping in the backseat.

"We just all got chills and it was just great. It was the neatest thing," the bus aide said.

Meanwhile, police hope to track down the thieves with the evidence they took from the van.

Anyone with information is encouraged to call Ogden Police at 801-395-8221.

E-mail: jboal@desnews.com