COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A local mother was pumping gas when she and her 1-year-old son were victimized.
NBC 4's Mike Bowersock reported with the FAST FACTS.
Sarah Schmidt was filling up her car Tuesday morning when a strange man walked up to her.
Her son was inside the vehicle.
She said he asked her to give him a ride to his car.
She said she was thinking, "No!" when he walked around the front of her car and got into the passenger's side.
She said he grabbed her wallet before jumping out of the car.
She said she followed him in her car while calling the police.
"The next thing I know, here's an automated service, and I'm like, 'This isn't helping me.' I'm trying to listen to that, trying to watch the guy, trying to watch traffic, completely flustered to begin with," Schmidt said.
She said she followed him to a nearby fire station where she told firefighters what happened.
Columbus firefighters got involved.
She said they pushed the man up against a fence and stopped him.
"We passively stopped him, and we said, 'We're going to call the police and get this straightened out,' " CFD Lieutenant John Rohr said.
The firefighters asked Schmidt whether she had called the police. She said she told them she had called and was on hold.
When CPD police arrived, they let the man go, Bowersock reported.
Schimdt was on her way to fire station to thank the firefighters when the same thing allegedly happened again at the same Marathon gas station on Alum Creek Drive on the city's Southeast Side.
She said she guessed the guy who jumped into her car jumped into a van.
Schmidt's father was keeping an eye on the station, watching for the man who allegedly stole his daughter's wallet.
"He jumps into a silver van at the gas pump. This officer pulls up, blocks his way. I'm like, 'I can't believe it, this guy did it again,' " Bill Schmidt said.
The suspect was in a CPD cruiser while Bowersock was on the scene. Bowersock asked the suspect whether he wanted to talk to him.
The 39-year-old man didn't want to talk.
CPD said there was some confusion Tuesday morning but he was taken into custody and could be charged with a felony because the wallet had credit cards in it.
He hasn't been charged with any crime currently.
Schmidt's wallet was recovered and returned.
CPD said the incident originally sounded like a misdemeanor and it's up to officer's discretion to keep a suspect or let him or her go.
After the second odd incident, though, they kept him.
For additional information, stay with NBC 4 and refresh nbc4i.com -- Where Accuracy Matters.
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