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Amber Alert: Sahara Little, 6, abducted in car outside Philly pizza shop found safe

Sahara Little was in the backseat of a burgundy Scion TC when it was stolen at around 9.30 pm on Tuesday night, December 7

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: A six-year-old Philadelphia girl who was in a car that was stolen from a pizza shop parking lot has been found "unharmed" after authorities issued an Amber Alert for her earlier.

Sahara Little was in the backseat of a burgundy Scion TC when it was stolen around 9.30 pm on Tuesday, December 7. The Amber Alert, issued at 6.10 am on Wednesday, December 8, described the six-year-old as a 4-foot-tall, 80 pounds female with black hair and brown eyes. Prior to her rescue, she was last seen wearing a pink puffer jacket with a furry hood and tan khaki pants. Police described the stolen vehicle as a two-door sedan with a Pennsylvania license plate LKV-1067, adding that the passenger side fog light of the car was out. Amber Alerts were also recently issued for 2-year-old Colorado girl Ezaria Glover, 17-year-old Tennessee girl Autumn Turner, and six-week-old Cannon Tatum from Ohio. 

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Sarah's mother told the authorities that her daughter was awake when she left her in the backseat of her car with the engine running during a stop at Giovanni's Pizzeria for food. However, when she returned from the store with her pizza, both the car and her child were gone. Authorities are searching for a male suspect who allegedly jumped into the vehicle, which was last seen traveling down Greene Street. "So we believe that this car was stolen as an opportunity because the engine was running. The door was unlocked. The individual who stole the car may not have known there was a 6-year-old child," Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small previously said. "So hopefully he abandons the car once he finds out there's a 6-year-old child in it."

Police interviewed the mother as well as employees at the pizza shop following the incident. They were also checking homes of other family members across the city hoping the child would show up. "We are checking family that lives throughout the city. We have family that lives in North Philly, other family that lives in West Philly, so we're currently at those locations looking for this child but right now we have not found the child," Small added at the time.

Philadelphia police later shared on Twitter that the six-year-old had been "located in the 35th police district" and was "unharmed." The department thanked the public for their support.

What is an Amber Alert?

Amber Alerts are used by law enforcement to notify the public about missing children thought to have been kidnapped. Amber Alerts are only used for the most serious child-abduction cases when authorities believe a child is in danger of serious bodily injury or death. The goal of Amber Alerts is to add millions of extra eyes and ears to watch, listen and help in the safe return of the child and apprehension of the abductor.

By the end of 2001, only four states had statewide Amber Alert emergency preparedness plans. In 2002, the White House convened a conference on missing, exploited, and runaway children. It was at this point the Amber Alert emergency management program came into national focus. On April 30, 2003, then-President George W Bush signed the PROTECT Act into law, which provided the emergency preparedness and response tools necessary to create a national Amber Alert program. With this support, Hawaii became the 50th state to complete its statewide Amber Alert emergency preparedness plan in February 2005. The Amber Alert system has helped facilitate the rescue of more than 1,000 children to date.

If you see a child, adult or vehicle fitting an Amber Alert description, immediately call the telephone number given in the Amber Alert and provide authorities with as much information as possible. If you believe a child is missing, you should contact local law enforcement immediately, then call the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678). More information about available resources can be found at missingkids.org/MissingChild.