Huntington Beach woman sees Amber Alert, finds stolen car with 4-year-old inside

A homeless man was behind bars Wednesday for allegedly stealing a car that contained a 4-year-old boy in Long Beach, triggering an Amber Alert.

Timothy Wood, listed by county jail records as 34, was arrested around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday near Pine Avenue and Shoreline Drive, according to Long Beach police.

Police said that just after 5:45 p.m. Tuesday, a man left his 2021 Honda Accord running near First Street and Linden Avenue with his son, 4-year-old Justin Chan, inside the vehicle. Wood allegedly jumped in the vehicle and drove off, with the boy still inside, triggering an Amber Alert.

Two women who were in the area and received the Amber Alert notification on their phones started to actively search for the missing car.

“We got an Amber Alert on our phone and we decided to start looking,” one of the women, Reagan Dunn, told ABC7. “We started driving around, it was 10 minutes. Our route ended, and we decided to keep looking.

Dunn said her friend was driving “and I glanced over. I was like, wait I just saw a gray Honda Accord, and I saw 8XP, which was the license plate.”

The Huntington Beach resident said her friend turned around and parked, and Dunn called 911.

“We ran across the street and the license plate matched up,” she said.

Police were contacted and found the Honda with the child sitting in his car seat inside the car near Pine Avenue and Shoreline Drive around 8:10 p.m. Tuesday, and he was reunited with his father a short time later.

According to police, the suspect had abandoned the vehicle and walked away. Officers were able to locate security video that showed the direction the suspect was heading, and he was later found nearby.

Wood was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping, child endangerment and vehicle theft. He was being held in lieu of $100,000 bail.