The incident occurred outside the victim's apartment near 173rd Street and Grevillea Avenue around 2:48 p.m.
According to Sgt. Paul Schuerger of the Los Angeles County sheriff's South Los Angeles Station, the boy's father buckled his son in his car seat and returned to his apartment to get a diaper bag he had forgotten. When he returned, he saw the suspect, later identified as Christopher Smith of Inglewood, driving away with his pick-up truck and son which prompted him to call authorities.
"I when to take a peak to make sure she was grabbing his diaper bag and by the time I got to the top of the stairs, I heard the car door slam and the car pin it west bound down the street," said the 2-year-old's father who didn't want to be identified.
In a matter of minutes, deputies located the truck down the block in the area of 168th Street and Hawthorne Boulevard.
Smith was arrested on kidnapping and grand theft auto charges and jailed at the South Los Angeles Station on $135,000 bail.
The toddler was a little shaken up but unharmed.
