Van Repossessed With Child Inside: Philadelphia Police

PHILADELPHIA – A van repossession in West Philadelphia started routinely, turned into a potential disaster, and ended without incident early Thursday morning.

A mom stopped in the Domino's Pizza store on 45th and Chestnut streets at about 2:35 a.m. and when she came out her van was gone, and so was her daughter.

Police said officers were called to the area for an abduction and found the mother on scene.

She told police she was clocking out of work and left her 7-year-old daughter in her van, which was towed away during a repossession operation, police said.

Police said the tow truck driver, identified as Carmino Giannone, heard someone yelling that a child was in the vehicle.

Giannone, who said he was tracking the van and had paperwork for the repossession, stopped to check inside the vehicle but didn't find a child. He told 6ABC people often yell at him when he's towing a vehicle just to get him to stop.

Giannone was stopped a few blocks from the store on 50th Street and Woodland Avenue, police said.

With police, Giannone looked inside the van again and saw the child's foot. They found her asleep under a blanket in the third row rear seat of the van, police said.

The tow truck driver who was tracking the van and had paper work to repossess it had no idea the child was inside.

"The vehicle to me appeared unoccupied," he told 6ABC "There's two car seats in the second row that were empty, that I could see from the mirror of my truck. I don't have to get out of my truck to hook up a car."

Police said the child slept through the incident and was unharmed.

Police said Special Victims Unit is investigating the incident and will provide more information when details are made available.

Image via thekirbster, Flickr Commons