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Children describe being kidnapped while sitting in mother’s car

Posted at 8:43 PM, May 09, 2013
and last updated 2013-05-09 20:44:17-04

Norfolk, Va. - It was a terrifying night for two children, Austin and Trinity, after they were kidnapped while sitting in their mother's car last night.

They told NewsChannel 3 they thought they were going to be killed.

“I said, ‘Are you going to kill us?’ She said, ‘Oh child, if I was gonna kill you, you would have been killed,’” says Trinity.

Police tell NewsChannel 3 that a woman got in the car and drove off.

“I was like in my head, “What is going on, what is going on? This must be a dream, but it wasn't a dream. This was happening in real life. And I was like this can never happen again,” says Austin.

Erica Howard says she left her 6 and 7-year-old children inside her running car for a minute while she picked something up at her friend's house.

Then, next thing she knew, she came out and the car was pulling out of the driveway.

“I shouldn't have left the keys in the car. My general rule is if I can see the car and the kids, everything is fine. And I could see, but obviously I wasn't looking,” says Erica Howard, the mother.

She says she tried stopping the driver, but couldn't make it in time.

She went back to her friends and called 911 and officers say, within minutes, they stopped the woman a half mile away in the K-mart parking lot and found both kids unharmed.

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Woman arrested after allegedly stealing car with two kids inside