INDIANAPOLIS -- Police are searching for a man who stole a van with an 11-month-old boy inside Saturday morning from the parking lot of a Circle K gas station.
After a four-hour multi-agency search, the boy was found unharmed inside the van, which had been abandoned at Minnesota and Randolph streets,
6News' Tanya Spencer reported.
Police Find Baby Safe, Search For Man
Slideshow: Police Seek Man After Boy Found Safe
The boy, Brayden Huepenbecker, had been left in the van, which had been left running at the gas station at 21st Street and Shadeland Avenue, as his father, Matt Shinbur went into the station.
Shinbur and the boy's mother, April Huepenbecker, feared the worst as the search began.
"We don't care about the van. We don't care about anything in the van except for our son," Huepenbecker said. "He's my only son. I need him. He's my life. He's everything."
Off-duty firefighters and police officers from several departments came in on their day off to help look for the child.
An Indianapolis police homicide detective found the boy buckled in his car seat inside the van, which had its flashers on.
"We're relieved that we found the van. We're relieved we found the child," said Indianapolis Police Chief Mike Spears. "I'm very, very proud of the work of the literally hundreds of officers who dropped everything to come in on their own time and help us with this search."
When Brayden was found, he was crying, but was otherwise fine. It was a happy ending for the young parents, who grasped their son in a tearful reunion.
"I don't ever want to let him out of my sight again," Huepenbecker said.
Shinbur said he learned a terrifying lesson about leaving a baby in a running vehicle.
"Don't ever do that. I know everybody says it's OK every once in a while or when it's cold," Shinbur said. "That's exactly what I thought, but it's never going to happen again.
Images of the man who took the van were captured on surveillance video at the gas station.
Police said the man acted suspicious as he was inside the store and might have been casing it for a robbery.
The man is in his mid-20s. He was wearing a blue, puffy coat with a gray hoodie underneath, jeans, white tennis shoes and a blue stocking cap.
Police asked anyone who knows who he is or anything else about the case to call Indianapolis police at 317-327-6613.
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