Elizabeth Freeland was tutoring high-school students in math and physics at her Oak Park home Monday night when she heard a loud banging on her front door.



A friend of one of her children peeked out the window and saw a toddler standing alone, crying.



"He was just a little kid," she said. "Had his shoes. His jacket."



Freeland scooped him into her arms and the boy calmed down a little while her husband called 911.



Police said the 2-year-old had been inside a pizza delivery van when it was stolen from a restaurant in the 6500 block of West North Avenue in Chicago's Galewood neighborhood.



The boy's mother and father deliver pizzas. While they were parked out front, the father ran into the restaurant and the mother turned her back to the van for a moment. When she turned around, she saw two teens jumping in, according to police.



The teens apparently dropped the boy off before crashing the van in Chicago's Austin neighborhood near Jackson Boulevard and Central Avenue.



Freeland said her first fear was that the boy had been abandoned. Officers who arrived at the home told her they just had the call of a boy kidnapped in a stolen car and they thought the boy might be the one they were looking for.



The first 911 call came to police about 6:20 p.m., and within eight minutes or so, the white 1999 Pontiac minivan had crashed and the boy was found safe.