Police return child in its car seat to mother, after car thief ditches child and flees

Police returned a child strapped in its car seat to its mother shortly after a suspect stole the mother's car from a Sun Valley Ralphs grocery store parking lot, with the child in the back seat.  

Around 1 p.m., Los Angeles Police Department officers responded to a residence a short distance away, in the 12100 block of Peoria, where the child, still strapped in its car seat, was in the driveway of a residence.  

Officers drove the child back to its mother, at the Ralphs grocery store on Laurel Canyon and Roscoe boulevards. 

The suspect, driving the stolen blue Nissan Rogue, was last seen going southbound on Laurel Canyon Boulevard.