‘Stolen’ Little Girl Found Safe, Sound : Thief Abandons Car With Her in Back Seat

SANTA ANA — An 8-year-old girl sleeping in the back seat of her mother’s car awoke Tuesday morning to find a thief at the wheel and her mom nowhere in sight.

Valerie Bodkin, who kept herself covered with a pink and white blanket, escaped unharmed after the thief abandoned the car several miles away.

“I was crying,” Valerie said as she was reunited with her mother. “I was thinking that I will jump out of the car as soon as he stops.”

The thief might have realized Valerie was in the back seat when he stopped the automobile and fled on foot, said Maureen Haacker, a spokeswoman for Santa Ana police. But he did take a purse, containing $33 in cash belonging to the mother and Valerie’s inoculation record.

The youngster’s adventure started about 6:45 a.m. when the family drove from Paramount to Vodie’s Alignment & Brakes on 17th Street near Bristol Street, where her father works as a manager, said her mother, Susan Bigley. As usual, Bigley left her keys in the ignition and helped her husband, Randy Bodkin, open the office.

“It was like three minutes, I came out and the car was gone,” Bigley, 33, said.

“I started running all over the place looking for it. I was praying, ‘Please don’t hurt her.’ I just wanted her back,” she said.

A man driving to work, Kevin Woods, 29, spotted the girl standing at the corner of Maybury and Palm streets, about four miles from where the car had been stolen.

“She looked too young to be on her own,” Woods said. “ . . . She gave me those alligator tears and that just killed me.”

Woods drove the girl to his office nearby, the Label Factory, where she called her family. He then kept her entertained by showing her how stickers are made and gave her a teddy bear sticker for her white sweater.

Minutes later, mother and daughter were reunited as Woods and his co-workers looked on.

“The reunion was just fantastic. Mom was crying, daughter was crying, everybody was crying. It made it all worthwhile,” Woods said.

Bigley said her daughter was lucky to be found by a nice person.

“I am just thankful that an honorable guy picked her up. You just hear so many bad things happening to kids,” she said.

Valerie said she learned two lessons from the ordeal: To call 911 “because it’s free” and “never fall asleep in the car.”

Woods had nothing but praise for the 8-year-old he rescued.

“She was very spunky and brave,” Woods said. “I was really impressed.”