Mother leaves car briefly, returns to find it, kids missing

Tricia Doyle left her red Toyota Prius running in her driveway at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday as she ran inside to tell her 9-year-old son that she was ready to leave.

She was gone from the car less than two minutes.

When she came outside, the car and her almost 2-year-old twin boys, who were in their car seats in the back, were missing.

“My heart fell out of my chest when I realized my car wasn’t there,” she said at a news conference Wednesday morning.

The car was stolen from her driveway in the 500 block of Mead Street. She had left her cellphone in the car, which has a mobile application that allows her to find her phone.

Police officers used the app to track the phone and located her car almost half an hour later near Quitman Street and Cedar Avenue.

“It was the worst 30 minutes of my life,” Doyle said.

Officers found the car abandoned, with the twin boys unharmed, still strapped in their car seats, Cmdr. Mark Fleecs said.

Denver police warned residents about “puffer” vehicles, or vehicles left running while unoccupied between October and April. Last year, 372 vehicles were stolen during that time, said Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen.

Police had not made any arrests as of Wednesday morning and are looking for two suspects, a man and a woman.

The two may have been associated with a 2010 white Kia Soul, and the man was described as “tall” while the woman was described as “heavier set” with dyed red or purple hair, Fleecs said.

Doyle said she has seen signs about not leaving unoccupied cars running in the winter, but she never expected it to happen to her. Through tears Wednesday morning, she thanked Denver police for their work in locating the vehicle and her kids.

“Don’t leave your cars running, just don’t,” she said. “It’s not worth it.”