Just a day after an unidentified woman stole their car with two kids in the backseat, a new San Francisco couple is truly ecstatic about their decision to move here. McKay and Stephanie Thomas, who moved to Cole Valley from Utah six months ago, nearly lost their children Tuesday evening, but were happy to tell the local news about such a helpful town.

The Thomas family parked in the Mission Tuesday evening and left their car running while they got out to talk to a family member, KTVU reports. That's when a female suspect ran up, hopped in the car, and took off with their three-year-old daughter Harper and one-year-old son Leonardo still sleeping in the back. The suspect drove towards the couple and hit McKay, throwing him up onto the hood.

After dusting himself off, McKay says another driver tried to help him follow his missing children until a 911 dispatcher reined him in. “It was hard to stop looking,” McKay said on the evening news, “Because there's a moment where you have to come to terms with the fact that you're powerless, you have nothing more that you can do.” With San Francisco Police canvassing the neighborhood, the car was found half an hour later in Portola. The children were unharmed and apparently still asleep.

Although this totally would have never happened in Utah, McKay thanked his family's new hometown:

"Within a few minutes we literally had thousands of people on alert,” said McKay.

"That speaks to what this city is capable of. We can come together when we need to and we did. within 30 minutes we had our family found and within an hour we were reunited with our kids."

Stephanie echoed her husband's sentiment: "I love San Francisco," she said. "In fact we want to settle in the Bay Area and stay forever.”

The suspect, on the other hand, was last seen ditching the car and fleeing the scene on foot.

KTVU has Stephanie and McKay's 15 minutes of fame, which young Harper and Leo are probably going to get a good laugh out of when they're older:

[KTVU]
[BCN/Appeal]