A thief attempted to steal a car at a Nashville gas station that had two children inside.
The surveillance video shows the attempted abductor in a car that's parked at the Mini Mart in East Nashville.
"They're waiting to do something bad," Eyd Toss said.
Toss has owned the gas station on McFerrin and Eastland Avenue for 40 years.
In recent months, he's seen an uptick in crime at his convenience stores in Davidson County.
On Wednesday, he said two kids were nearly abducted from his store's parking lot.
In the surveillance video, you can see two people go inside the mini mart. They leave the car running with two children inside.
Moments later, a man in a grey hoodie gets out of a Chrysler New Yorker and he then gets inside the car where the kids are in the back seat. He puts it in reverse, and crashes into the gas pump.
At that point the kids bail from the car and escape.
Toss said, "Because he hit the gas pump he stopped. Then the child has a chance to run away. As the children try to get away from the car thief, he nearly runs over the little boy."
A short time later, you can see his mom embrace him.
Toss said he's seen an uptick of crime at his convenience store and he's begging police for help.
Toss said, "They need to hire more people to protect us. They shouldn't give the chance to bad people to bother us. To threaten us. To take our money. To threaten out kids. They should do something."
Toss became a citizen in 2008. He escaped from Egypt in 2003 to get away from a dangerous situation.
Now he's found his American Dream is not what he expected.
Toss said, "The crime's become more and more nobody can stop it"
In the past 3 months several of his stores have been robbed, burglarized, or vandalized in Davidson County.
While he has insurance, he still sometimes loses thousands of dollars.
Toss said, "The damage is this area. He hit it so hard. This goes out and the other side too."
The car theft happened at 5:30p.m. Wednesday evening.
At that time there are a lot of people in the area for dinner at the Holland House, the Pharmacy, and Mas Tacos.
Toss said, "I couldn't sleep before I know everything okay. Every single night I'm worried. I worry about my stores."
If you have any information on the attempted abduction you can call Crime Stoppers at 615-74-CRIME.
