LAKEWOOD, Colo. — A frantic situation unfolded Friday morning in Lakewood after police responded to a call of a stolen vehicle with a child inside.
Lakewood Police said they were called to the Baymont Inn & Suites hotel located off of Union Boulevard and West 6th Avenue at 9:20 a.m. The caller told police that a vehicle had been stolen and that a child was inside.
About an hour later, the vehicle was found at a tow yard in Denver's Globeville neighborhood, Lakewood Police said. The child who was inside was found and was safe and asleep, police said.
"The parents told us the kid had been playing Fortnite all through the night and early this morning since they knew they were going on a road trip today," John Romero, the public information officer with Lakewood Police, said. The child's parents let him sleep in the car while they finished washing their clothes in the hotel before heading out on their road trip.
Romero said the child was wearing a black hoodie and had a large black blanket covering him. The tow driver said he had no idea the child was in the vehicle, police said.
"He just looked like a shadow back there... The driver did not see the child. He was just as surprised as the child was when we showed up," said Romero.
Police said the vehicle the child was in had been repossessed and brought to the tow yard off of East 48th Avenue and Washington Street — 12 miles from the hotel, about a 20-minute drive.
The child slept through it all.
"We actually had to bang on the window to get him to wake up and he did not know where he was, he wasn’t sure what had happened," Romero said. The child told sergeants that he's a heavy sleeper. "Especially after a long night of video games," said Romero.
Police safely got him back to his parents.
The tow truck driver will not be facing any charges. Romero said it was a legal repossession and an honest mistake.