Car thief steals daughter too

A Central China car thief who drove off with a 5-year-old in the back seat then tried to contact her parent will be prosecuted for child abduction, prosecutors announced on Tuesday.

The People's Procuratorate of Beihu District in Chenzhou, Hunan province confirmed the arrest of the driver on January 10.

The suspect, allegedly a penniless drug user, stole the car on December 29. He allegedly told police after he took drugs he was walking around a supermarket when he noticed a parked car with a 5-year-old girl inside. The father had nipped inside, but hadn't taken the keys.

The thief drove off toward the city of Zixing, planning to sell the vehicle. As he drove, the girl complained she was hungry and so he stopped and bought her fish and two bottles of water. Spotting a business card in the car, the junkie stopped to call the father. He borrowed a phone from an unknowing policeman but when the driver realized the man who answered the phone was not the father, he hung up, returned the phone and drove off again. He finally parked at the side of a road in Zixing.

Two of the father's friends identified the car from media reports and called police. The thief was arrested and the girl returned to her father.