Colombian authorities have released new details about the swift operation that led to the rescue of a 7-year-old girl found asleep inside a stolen pickup truck in Bogotá. The incident began on the night of April 6, 2026, when a Nissan truck was stolen from the Nuevo Monterrey neighborhood in the Suba district, with the child, identified as Gabriela, still inside.
The alarm was raised at 8:41 p.m. through Bogotá’s emergency line, known as “línea 123,” which is similar to 911 in the United States. That call triggered an immediate, multi-agency response coordinated by the city’s Command, Control, Communications and Computing Center (C4), a hub that manages high-impact emergencies across the Colombian capital.
According to Francisco Hoyos, head of the center’s Operations Analysis, Response and Monitoring unit, teams used technological tracking tools alongside patrol units deployed throughout the city to locate the vehicle. Hoyos described the process during an interview on “Voces de la Ciudad,” a podcast produced by Bogotá’s Public Security Secretariat, explaining how different city agencies pooled resources to respond quickly.
Their efforts paid off just before midnight: at 11:50 p.m., officers found the truck in the Nicolás de Federmán neighborhood, in the Teusaquillo district on the other side of the city. Gabriela was found safe and still asleep inside, roughly three hours after the theft was first reported.
For more details on how the rescue unfolded, read the original report from El Tiempo.
Source: Detalles del operativo que permitió rescatar en Bogotá a una niña de 7 años que iba dentro de una camioneta hurtada (eltiempo.com). English version produced with AI assistance.
Image: Jorge Láscar from Australia.