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Indiana trooper finds missing boy asleep in car after its theft prompted Amber Alert

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A mother is now happy to have her son again after police say someone stole her car with her 10-year-old boy inside Wednesday morning.

“Mom is just overjoyed and I think it’s one of those things probably every mother’s worst nightmare,” said Lawrence Police Department Sgt. David Gordon.

The 10-year-old boy was inside a vehicle at a Lawrence gas station on Pendleton Pike Wednesday around 6:40 a.m. when the vehicle was stolen. In a surveillance video, a woman wearing a black jacket and a hoody is seen walking casually around the pumps. She finds the car running with the doors unlocked.

Then she slowly approaches the car with the child inside, looks around, gets in, and takes off.

Luckily, Indiana State Police Trooper Susan Rinschler was in the right place at the right time. Just 10 minutes after an Amber Alert was issued for the missing boy she found him unharmed and asleep.

“I get up, I still didn’t see a plate at the time. I look in really quick, didn’t see anybody, couldn’t really see a VIN at the time, a VIN plate, and then I knew there had been a child associated with this Amber Alert,” Rinschler said. “I just opened the car door and there was a sleeping little boy in the back seat.”

She said the suspect wasn’t inside the car at the time and that the windshield wipers were left on.

“For us it was one of those things it just doesn’t seem right and a parked car with the windshield wipers going,” said Rinschler. “It didn’t seem right so I checked it out and he was in there.”

Rinschler described the moment the boy’s mom was brought to the scene to see her son safe as “the most beautiful thing.”

Now, LPD is hoping to find 33-year-old Brandi Behning. Behning is wanted for questioning regarding the vehicle theft and abduction of the child.

“To find out as you see around us this is a big area,” said LPD Capt. Tracey Cantrell. “She could have disappeared anywhere so we’re hoping that someone has seen her get out of the vehicle.”

Anyone with information on Behning’s whereabouts is asked to call LPD at 317-545-7575 or Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at 317-232-TIPS.

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