PORTLAND, Ore. — Two children were able to escape from a car after it was stolen in North Portland on Monday afternoon, the Portland Police Bureau reported. The suspect was taken into custody after a chase on Interstate 5 into Washington.
Police responded just after 2:45 p.m. to North Interstate Avenue near Dekum Street after someone flagged down an officer to report that a woman stole a car with two children inside, PPB said.
The children's father, who wished to remain anonymous, had picked up his two sons from school and was about to pick up his 4-year-old daughter when he saw the woman sitting outside. As he was returning to the car, the woman jumped into the driver's seat, speeding off with the two children still in the backseat.
"I rushed over to try to stop her ... but as I was holding onto the door, she took off," spraining his finger in the attempt, he told reporters on Wednesday. "I wasn't fast enough to get her out of the car."
As he was running back to the school building to call 911, he flagged down an approaching police car, which was able to track the phone still inside the vehicle before the woman flung it out the window.
Police said the two kids were soon able to make their escape: About 10 minutes after the theft, the 9- and 11-year-old kids jumped out of the car when the suspect stopped at a stoplight near Northwest 15th Avenue and Glisan Street. The kids flagged down a passerby who called 911.
Officers responded and collected the children, taking them to be reunited with their family, with the father recalling that the wait was the "longest 10 minutes I felt in my life."
"I didn't care if I didn't get the car back; I just wanted to have my kids back in my arms," he said.
Not long after that, PPB said, a Multnomah County Sheriff's Office deputy assigned to TriMet's Transit Police Division spotted the stolen car. Officers gave chase as the suspect drove north onto I-5 and into Washington.
Officers from multiple agencies finally stopped the suspect just south of the Northeast 134th Street exit and took the woman into custody. She has not yet been publicly identified.
PPB said that detectives from the Major Crimes Unit are continuing an investigation into the incident.
Meanwhile, the father said he is grateful to God and PBB. He cautioned other parents that even though he thought it would be safe to get out of the running car at a school, "don't take the chance I took."
He said that his kids are doing fine and that they'll all get through what happened.
"That's all that matters to me: we're back together," he said.
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