Girl Safe After Kidnaping in Her Mother’s Stolen Car

A 6-year-old girl kidnaped while she slept on the back seat of a car stolen from her mother knocked on an apartment door this morning in South-Central Los Angeles, eight hours after she was reported missing.

Lanesha Lynn Thomas told police that she awoke about 8 a.m. in the car, which the thieves had abandoned on West 75th Street, Inglewood Police Officer Calvin Smith said. The woman who answered the door at the nearby apartment fed the little girl breakfast while she waited for officers to arrive.

The girl and her mother, Katherine Toney, 26, were reunited at the Inglewood Police Station.

Toney told police she was driving through Inglewood shortly after midnight when the driver of a black Nissan lightly bumped her car near the intersection of Century Boulevard and Van Ness Avenue.

Toney followed the car until it stopped on a side street. When she walked to the back of her car to survey the damage, the passenger in the Nissan jumped into her car and sped away with Lanesha.

The girl’s grandmother, Judy Wilson, said she waited hours by the telephone for word from police while Toney scoured the area looking for her daughter.

Police have no suspects and only general descriptions of the driver and passenger. Both were teen-agers. One had long, curly hair and acne scars and was wearing a black-and-white checkered shirt and black pants.

Officers said Toney’s car was not damaged and Lanesha was not hurt.