Virgina Beach, VA – Jewish Tot Found Safe After Carjacking

Virgina Beach, VA – Police have found 1 1/2-year-old Naomi Hilel, who was in a minivan that was stolen this morning at a Virginia Beach 7-Eleven. They said she was found in good condition walking around a hotel parking lot unattended in Newport News.

Her parents reunited with her this afternoon.

Virginia Beach police are still looking for Matthew R. Nash, 24, a white male who is 5 feet 11, as a “person of interest.”

He has dark, shoulder-length hair and was wearing a ball cap, plaid shirt, dark-colored shorts and dark tennis shoes, police said.

At 9:48 this morning, a man pushed a woman away from her minivan at a gas pump, then took off in the vehicle with Naomi still in her car seat, police said. The mother fought the man and tried to hang onto the car, family and police said. She was treated by paramedics.

Below video report from WVEC TV

At 10:30, a couple checking out of the Point Plaza Hotel, at 950 J. Clyde Morris Blvd. in Newport News, found Naomi in the parking lot uninjured, said Newport News police spokeswoman Holly McPherson. They brought her back into the lobby and called police.

The van, a dark gray Honda Odyssey, has Florida license plates with the number HASHEM1, Long said. Anyone who spots the van is asked to call 911.

Naor Hilel, the child’s father, said, “I don’t know who’d want to do this kind of thing to people.”

He said he was at home when the carjacking happened. His family is in Hampton Roads from Florida visiting family for the summer. He said HASHEM1, the van’s license plate, means “God is one.”