DETROIT – Tamika Griffith of Redford can't hold back tears as she holds onto her 10-year-old son, Kelvin Crumpton.
"I am just so grateful he is here today," Tamika told Local 4. "These days so many kids don't make it home."
Kelvin narrowly escaped a frightening carjacking in southwest Detroit on Tuesday.
"I could have been dead at 10 years old," said Kelvin. "But he gave me a chance to live."
About 4 p.m. on that day, Kelvin's dad picked him up from school before they made a pit stop.
"I was getting thirsty," said Kelvin. "So my dad took me to the red gas station."
It was the Citgo station on Dearborn and Cobalt.
While dad went in the store, Kelvin waited in the back seat of the red Chevy Blazer. Minutes later, a stranger was behind the wheel.
"When he pulled off I yelled, ‘What are doing? Get out of here,'" said Kelvin.
Detroit police said the man who stole the car had no idea Kelvin was in the back seat, but the 10-year-old kept screaming.
"That's when he pulled off the road and told me to get out, so I had to run all the way back to the gas station," said Kelvin.
But when he got back to Citgo, his dad was already gone. He had gotten into a friend's car to chase after the carjacker and try and save his son.
There was a short high speed chase between the two cars.
Kelvin's dad eventually lost the suspect, but the car was recovered some time later near Gleason and South Wearing.
"Kelvin's dad didn't know he had been dropped off and was doing everything he could to save him," said Griffith.
Kelvin did manage to get a look at the man who stole his father's car -- he's described as a light skinned black male, in his 20s with short curly hair. He was wearing a baseball hat.
"I would say to that man, 'Thank you, thank you for letting my son go, I forgive you,'" said Griffith.
Anyone with information on the carjacking is asked to call Detroit police.