Woman arrested after toddler abducted in Sunnyvale from family car

Officers arrested Luong Tammy Huynh, 29, as she returned to her home in San Jose in connection with the abduction of a toddler.

SUNNYVALE, Calif. - A woman has been arrested in connection with the abduction of a nearly 2-year-old boy in Sunnyvale as he sat in the back of a 2008 Buick Enclave.

The Sunnyvale Department of Safety sent a news release on Monday saying officers arrested Luong Tammy Huynh, 29, as she returned to her home in San Jose.

Police said that additional surveillance video "further implicated" her with the abduction of Jacob Jardine early Sunday morning.

She was booked on suspicion of kidnappings and vehicle theft and is being held at the Santa Clara County Mail Jail.

Efforts to reach her or determine if she has an attorney were not immediately successful.

Her arrest caps a harrowing day for the toddler's family.

Jacob was sleeping in the family's car about 4 a.m. Sunday, when someone took the Buick as his mother was unloading groceries from the SUV from the parking lot of Travel Inn, 590 N. Mathilda Ave., in Sunnyvale.

Surveillance video from the motel placed Huynh there, officials said, and they released some of those images.

The Buick was seen speeding south in the northbound lanes of Mathilda Avenue, police said.

Huynh was staying with a friend at the motel where Jacob’s mother, Melissa Jardine, and their family had been for the past week, police told the San Francisco Chronicle. It wasn't immediately clear why the family was staying at the motel.

An Amber Alert was issued for Jacob for much of the day.

On Sunday just after 6 p.m., the California Highway Patrol announced that Jacob had been found in a parking lot four miles from where he was taken.

He did not appear to be harmed, police said.

"A very big sense of relief," Jacob's grandmother, Shawna Thiel said after her grandson was found.

Police have not explained Huynh was aware that there was a child in the car when she allegedly took it.