A 34-year-old man was arrested in Long Beach after police say he stole a car that had been left idling with a 4-year-old boy inside, triggering an Amber Alert on Tuesday night.
Timothy Wood was booked on suspicion of kidnapping, child endangerment and stealing a vehicle, Long Beach police announced in a news release Wednesday.
Authorities say the boy, Justin Chan, was inside his parents’ 2021 Honda Accord on 1st Street and Linden Avenue around 5:45 p.m. when Wood took off in the vehicle.
Justin was in his parents’ car, a 2021 gray Honda Accord, when it was stolen.
(California Highway Patrol)
Police immediately began searching for the boy. An Amber Alert buzzed phones across Los Angeles and Orange counties around 7:30 p.m., showing the boy’s picture and a description of the car. A second alert around 9 p.m. gave the all-clear.
Two women who were in Long Beach hanging out got the alert and decided to drive around looking for the car, they told the Long Beach Post.
They eventually found it near the Pike Outlets, a popular downtown shopping district, and called police, according to the Post. The boy was found inside unharmed, police said.
“We would like to thank them for this act of heroism in finding this young boy,” police wrote in a news release.
Justin was reunited with his parents after the roughly two-hour-long ordeal, police said.
Detectives used security video from the mall to see which way the suspect walked after he abandoned the car. Wood, described as an unhoused person, was found nearby and taken into custody. He is being held on $100,000 bail, police said.
