Good Samaritan helps 2-year-old in abandoned car

"The dude who took the car took his coat off his back," said the toddler's mother, Chrishawn Merritt.

Marc Mims went to a relative's house Thursday night and took his 2-year-old son, Karter, with him. The father said he left Karter sleeping in the back seat of his silver Nissan while he ran inside. The car was parked in a private driveway. Two minutes later, it was gone, along with Karter, he said.

"It was the worst feeling and I was confused. I didn't even think (it) was real. That is stuff you see in movies," Mims said. "It felt like an anchor taking you down."

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After an agonizing two hours, the car was found abandoned "on the side of a liquor store … with the window down and no coat," Merritt said.

A good Samaritan, John Oglesby, looked inside the car and saw the child. He ran into the store and asked for someone to call 911.

"I just wanted to make sure he was OK. That's why I stood here and waited for police," Oglesby said. "The window was down, it was cold and we saw it was fogged up, so something told us to look into the car."

Karter was sitting in the back seat all by himself.

"He actually looked up and waved like he was OK, but he was still cold," Oglesby said.

Oglesby said he was relieved to find out the child was going to be alright.

"That made me really feel good," he said.

The boy's mother said whoever stole the car also stole her son’s coat. She said she wondered if the thief had touched it and worried about fingerprints, or maybe used the coat to wipe down the car before running.

“I know he had to have touched the coat. It was a nice coat,” Merritt said.

So far, police have not made an arrest in the case.