Highway Patrol

6-Month-Old Girl, Grandmother Found in Arizona After Amber Alert

The girl, Laylani Mosely, was reported missing Wednesday afternoon by a family member

A 6-month-old girl and her grandmother were found in Arizona on Wednesday evening within hours after an Amber Alert was issued to find them.

The girl, Laylani Mosely, was reported missing Wednesday afternoon by a family member, according to Huntington Beach police and the California Highway Patrol.

Laylani and her grandmother, 57-year-old Carolyn Ferguson, were found just after 6 p.m. approximately 300 miles away at a gas station in Arizona's Maricopa County, Maricopa County sheriff's officials said.

Ferguson's PT Cruiser had become disabled and was brought to the gas station by a mobile mechanic, according to Karen Akins, the gas station clerk credited with helping authorities locate the grandmother and baby.

Akins called police after seeing the grandmother "acting suspicious," officials said.

Akins' boss confirmed that the pair were the focus of a California Amber Alert.

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“She took the baby bottle and went to the cappuccino machine and filled it up with cappuccino,
And poured strawberry milk in with it and shook it. And tried to give the baby cappuccino,” Akins said.

Ferguson has a history of mental illness, police said.

Akins and a friend stalled Ferguson by chatting and changing Laylani's diaper, and then called authorities. 
 
"It's a mom thing, I just, if it wasn't her baby, I was just, it would kill me if I let her walk out that door, (and) know later on that it wasn't hers and I could have done something," Akins, who is a mother herself, said.
 
Ferguson was taken into Maricopa County custody just outside Phoenix pending evaluation and extradition. She is expected to be in jail for at least a week or two, according to Maricopa County officials.
 
Laylani is with Arizona child welfare and is expected to reunite with her family Thursday or Friday.
 
Before being located, Ferguson was seen in the city of Fontana about 10 a.m. in a 2007 white PT Cruiser with the license plate #5UQZ701.

Laylani is described as 15 pounds with black hair and wearing a pink onesie. Ferguson was described as 5 feet 7 inches tall with blonde hair and blue eyes.

NBC4's Samia Khan and Beverly White contributed to this report.

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