Elderly woman reunited with family after being kidnapped during car theft at Clayton County food mart
JONESBORO, Ga. - An 83-year-old woman with dementia has been reunited with her family after she was kidnaped during a car theft.
A man abducted Shirley McCurry Thursday afternoon outside a food mart in Clayton County. She was found safely at a restaurant in northwest Atlanta hours later.
Phillip McCurry picked up his mom outside the restaurant on Howell Mill Road in Atlanta after her terrifying ordeal that lasted hours.
"I'm just relieved that she's alright now," he told FOX 5. "I got my momma back, I thought I lost her."
Raw video shows elderly woman being abducted during car theft
The Clayton County Police Department released this raw video that investigators say shows a man dressed all in tan with red shoes approach an SUV with an elderly woman inside. He then gets into the gray 2016 Nissan Rogue with Georgia tag CTW6796. This happened a food mart located in the 7800 block of North Main Street in Jonesboro on Dec. 8, 2022.
The ordeal started just before 3:30 p.m. in Jonesboro. McCurry sat in the passenger side of an SUV as her nurse went inside the convenience store. Phillip says the car door was locked, but that his mom must have unlocked it.
Surveillance video shows a man dressed in light-colored clothes appear to be talking on a cell phone. He scopes out the SUV McCurry is seen sitting in. He is seen on video casually walking over as the passenger side window rolls down and appears to gesture towards McCurry. He then walks around to the driver side, gets in, and backs the SUV out.
"The guy carjacked the car with my mom in it," Phillip McCurry said. "Terror, just the worst thing that could happen to a son."
Shirley Jenkins McCurry, left, was inside a gray 2016 Nissan Rogue that police say was taken by a man, right, from a Jonesboro parking lot on Dec. 8, 2022. (Clayton County Police Department)
Hours passed, then the news Phillip was waiting for arrived. The kidnapper dropped Shirley off at the restaurant in Atlanta.
"Why anybody would do something like this to a sweet lady like my mom – thank God he didn't hurt her," Phillip said.
Shirley McCurry is back with family as of Thursday night. Her family says she seems fine.
The man who police say stole the SUV and kidnapped her is still on the run.