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COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- Early Sunday morning a car was stolen outside a 7-11 convenience store in Colorado Springs, with a 3-year-old inside!

The toddler is home safe and unharmed thanks to a good samaritan who helped reunite the boy with his father.

The incident began around 2 a.m. when Anthony Pettiford was at the 7-11 on South Hancock Avenue near Memorial Park. He called police to report his car had been stolen with his son inside. Pettiford told officers he had left his car running with the 3-year-old boy in the car when he stepped out to go into the store.

Officers searched the area for the car and found the boy at the intersection of Cucharras Street and Institute Street. The boy was found there with the help of a stranger that lived just a couple blocks away.

"It was about 2:37 when I looked at my alarm clock because I heard a knock on my door," Traci Gilbert, who helped the boy, said. "Then I heard the doorbell ring."

Gilbert said she and her son went to answer the door, and on their front step stood a little boy covered in snow.

"He said, 'Help me. I'm cold,'" Gilbert said.

The toddler traveled nearly half a mile from where he was taken to find safety from strangers.

"We were concerned for his well-being," Gilbert, who is also a nurse and checked the boy's temperature after letting him in her home, said. "The boy was completely calm. He said, 'I need help. I want to find my daddy.'"

Gilbert said the boy was carrying a plastic bag filled with a carton of soy milk, diapers, a few wipes and pajamas.

"We were asking him, 'Where is your family?'," she said. "He kept saying, 'He told me I had to leave.'"

After searching for any sign of the boy's parents or others who may be looking for him, Gilbert's son decided he would try to get the boy home.

"It was too cold outside because of the snow, so took the boy in his car," Gilbert said. "He started asking him questions, 'Do you know where you live?' 'Yes.' He said, 'That's my house,' but no one was there. He said, 'Well my daddy's not there. His car was stolen.'"

Shortly after, a police officer drove by the area, and Gilbert's son flagged him down. That's when they learned the boy was inside the stolen vehicle before he found his way to their home.

"I think the guy who stole the car got a bit more than he bargained for and made the boy take his belongings and get out," Gilbert said.

Gilbert said she is not so much disappointed in the father who left his son in a running car alone as she is with the man who stole the car.

"We try to do the best for our kids and we don't always," she said. "We make mistakes. I'm sure that dad knows now he's made a big mistake. On the guy who stole the car, he still turned a 3-year-old out in the night alone in the snow. That's the bottom line."

Colorado Springs Police officers said Pettiford will not likely be charged because of the traumatizing situation.

Pettiford's car is still missing and the suspect is at-large. Officers are searching for a white 1995 Chrysler New Yorker with Colorado license plate 083-VGE.

If you see the car, police warn to not approach it and instead call them at 444-7000. An anonymous tip can also be texted to 847411 by typing CSPD and the information.