SAN ANTONIO -- A 7-year-old boy escaped from his dad's car as it was being hijacked by thieves. The suspects tried to drive off with the boy still in the back seat.
Like most mornings, Friday around 4:30 a.m. Gabriel Salazar put his son in the car and went to go lock the front door before leaving for work.
"I started to hear the engine revving and saw the car backing up into the street," Salazar recalled.
Investigators say thieves tried to drive off on Tarrasa Road with his Suzuki... but they had company.
7-year-old Gabriel Salazar Jr. was wrapped up in a blanket, asleep in the back seat.
He woke up to a stranger driving his dad's car and his father running after him.
"I jumped on the hood and banging saying, 'my son is in there,'," Salazar said.
His son said the men were wearing jackets with a hoodie, hats, and a bandana covering their faces.
Sitting next to his father, the young boy recounted his quick action when the car stopped at the intersection down the street.
"The guy said, 'get out' really fast because my dad was coming," Salazar Jr. said.
"You let your guard down really quick, anything can happen in a blink of an eye," his father said.
The boy ran to his father, who made sure he was home safely before going after one of the suspects that was left behind. Salazar cornered him until officers arrived on the scene.
"I didn't grab him or nothing," Salazar said. "He was too scared to do anything."
The others didn't make it far before crashing two blocks away into a neighbors car and then taking off. They left behind a trail of destruction, fear, and relief before the sun even came up.
"It's something that no parent ever wants to go through," Salazar said. "It's a nightmare."