Truck stolen
with boy inside

Police recovered a gold pickup truck that was stolen last night with a 3-year-old boy still inside.

A statewide MAILE-AMBER alert was broadcast, sending information on the stolen vehicle and its possible whereabouts over the airwaves, television stations and Internet.

The incident was reported about 8:35 p.m. at 2140 N. Nimitz Highway.

Police Maj. Susan Ballard said the pickup was found at 9:15 p.m. in Salt Lake with the child in apparently good shape. The truck was located through an anonymous tip.

Ballard said the father went inside the Carl's Jr. to get something to eat but left the keys in the vehicle.

This is the third time in five months that a vehicle was stolen with a baby or young child inside.

In the other two cases, the drivers left their vehicles running with air conditioners on. The babies were recovered uninjured right after the reported thefts of the vehicles.

About 2:27 p.m. June 22, a woman left her 4-month-old baby girl in a gold pickup truck -- with the air conditioner on -- outside a 7-Eleven near Nuuanu Avenue and North Kuakini Street.

Police said that while the woman was in the convenience store, a heavy-set man in his 20s drove away with the infant in the back seat.

The incident set off the state's first MAILE-AMBER alert.

Less than an hour after the truck was stolen, it was found with the baby still inside in the parking lot of Red Hill's First Assembly of God on Moanalua Road by a DHL delivery driver. The driver had been notified of the alert, along with the company's other drivers, through his dispatcher.

No arrest has been made in that case.

On March 29 a 5-month-old infant was in the back seat of a car running with its air conditioner on outside the Golden Coin restaurant in Liliha.

The vehicle and baby were recovered less than an hour later, not far from the restaurant.

In that case, 26-year-old Tema Tanu Tema is accused of stealing the car.