Suspect steals running car with three children inside in north Harris County

Three children, ages 1, 3 and 10, were inside a running car when a man drove away from a gas station on Aldine Mail Route just after 1 a.m. Monday, turning a routine stop in north Harris County into a fast-moving child-safety emergency.

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office said the mother left the vehicle running while she went into the store. Investigators said a 25-year-old man, later identified by ABC13 Houston as 22-year-old Xavion Starks, got into the car and drove off before deputies arrived. The 10-year-old got out shortly after the theft and later called police, but the two younger girls were still inside as the vehicle kept moving through north Harris County.

Deputies began tracking a phone that was inside the car, but authorities said the suspect later threw it out along the route, complicating the search. The stolen vehicle was eventually found in the 23000 block of the Eastex Freeway with help from Humble Police Department officers, and the children were recovered during the response. ABC13 reported Starks was charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and two counts of aggravated kidnapping and booked into the Harris County Jail.

The children’s mother was later found walking along Aldine Bender Road and was taken to a hospital. Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said officials expected her to be okay. The case drew a rapid multiagency response in a part of the county where even a few seconds can change the outcome of an ordinary errand.

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office, founded in 1837, now serves more than 4.1 million residents, a scale that helps explain why incidents like this can trigger immediate attention across northeast Harris County. For caregivers, the stakes are sharper still: the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says more than 1,000 children have died of heatstroke in vehicles over the past 25 years, including 31 in 2025, and a child’s body temperature rises three to five times faster than an adult’s. The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services says Texas law does not set a minimum age for leaving a child alone, but inadequate supervision can be neglectful supervision.