DENHAM SPRINGS — A Thibodeaux woman accused of stealing a car with two children inside was arrested, Denham Springs Police said. 

Jennifer Gullick, 40, was arrested and booked into the Livingston Parish Detention Center on theft of a motor vehicle and aggravated kidnapping charges. The children's mother, Jameka Fields, 31, was also arrested and charged with two counts of child desertion and released from the scene with a misdemeanor summons, police said.

Just before midnight on Monday, police were dispatched to a Circle K on South Range Avenue near Bass Pro Boulevard after receiving a call from a mother, later identified as Fields, who had left her vehicle running with her two children—6 and 4 years old—inside while she went into the store.

Police said that while she was in the store, her car was stolen with the children inside and was last seen leaving the area southbound on South Range Avenue going towards Vincent Road. They later found the vehicle in a ditch along Plantation Avenue with the children both still inside, uninjured.

Gullick, who was identified as the suspect, was believed to have been staying at a nearby hotel and was found walking in the area and was identified using store surveillance cameras, police said.