Lieutenant Bobby Martin said Deputy Stanley Rodwell was on patrol in the Littleton area when he noticed a car parked at the old Oak Grove Church.
Rodwell ran the tags of the vehicle which came back as being stolen and also wanted in a Virginia child abduction case.
The woman driving the car, in which the two children were in — two boys aged 5 and 6 — had been taking back roads, apparently to avoid detection and make her way to Greensboro, Martin said.
Rodwell charged 26-year-old Sommer La-Ruesh Pannell of Greensboro on the outstanding abduction and unathorized use of a motor vehicle warrant.
Pannell had apparently pulled the car into the church to rest shortly before 2 a.m. when Rodwell spotted the vehicle, according to Martin.
“It was an absolutely outstanding job by Deputy Rodwell,” Martin said, “To work long hours and be paying attention to your surroundings.”
The Associated Press reported the story began Sunday when a Newport News convenience store clerk left her two young boys unattended in a car and enabled a North Carolina woman she had just met to abduct them.
Newport News police spokesman Lou Thurston says 32-year-old Yovonda D. Bennafield was charged with child neglect and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Bennafield told police a customer wanted to use a store phone Sunday to find a ride to North Carolina. Bennafield gave the woman her car keys and said she'd take her if the woman watched her sons until she got off work.
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