( CNN ) -- During her morning jog in north Houston , Hong Nguyen stumbled across an unusual sight : a baby girl partially hidden in the bushes near the side of the road . Strapped into a car seat on the ground , the 8-month-old child was crying . `` I called 911 , '' Nguyen said . `` And I stayed there with the baby . '' The chance encounter Monday in an unpopulated area near an industrial zone may have saved the little girl 's life . She had been missing for about six hours after a man stole the car she was in from outside a gas station in the early hours . Her mother had stopped to buy a soda , leaving the car keys in the ignition . Bitten by ants . Authorities had been frantically searching for the baby , identified by CNN affiliate KTRK as Genesis Hailey . The car was recovered a few blocks from the gas station about two hours after it was stolen . But there was no sign of the child or her car seat . Police said Genesis appeared to be in good health when she was found , apart from being hungry and suffering what appeared to be several ant bites . `` I did spot a couple of ants on the baby and I was able to get them off , '' said Albert Pizana , the officer who responded to the jogger 's emergency call . 'Middle of nowhere ' But police officials said they could n't comprehend the decision to leave the baby in such an isolated place . `` I do n't know what kind of an animal would do this to a child , '' said Lt. H. Lopez , of the Houston Police Department 's homicide division . `` Leaving the child in the middle of nowhere . '' Police officials also faced questions from reporters about the mother 's decision to leave her child in the car with the engine on . They said she was in the gas station 's store for a matter of seconds before she saw the thief jump in the car and start driving away with the door still open . He was in such a rush that he backed the car into the railing of the gas pump before he sped off with his infant passenger in the back . The mother ran out of the store but was n't quick enough to catch the car . `` It 's a good reminder for the public not to leave their vehicles running , especially with a baby inside , '' Lopez said . Swaddled in a uniform . Police are still looking for the suspect , a man in his late teens or early 20s . It 's unclear exactly when the baby was taken from the car and put in the bushes . Police said it 's possible she had been left there since the early hours of Monday . Pizana said Genesis was crying intermittently when he and his partner got to her . They took her inside their car , and he swaddled her in his uniform shirt to try to calm her . His partner retrieved her pacifier for her . Pizana declined to speculate what could have happened to the baby if the jogger had n't taken that particular route Monday morning . `` It makes you want to go home and hug your kids even tighter , '' he said . Police : Florida parents charged with abandoning kids had syringes in trucks .
A jogger finds a baby strapped in a wheelchair , hidden in bushes in north London . The baby was missing for about six hours after the car she was in was stolen . Her father had gone into a gas station , leaving the keys in the ignition . Police are looking for the man they believe stole the vehicle .