Carlesha Freeland-Gaither, abducted off street in Philadelphia, found safe

A WOMAN seen on surveillance video being abducted off a Philadelphia street has been found safe outside Baltimore.

Carlesha Freeland-Gaither was rescued from the car of her alleged kidnapper, 37-year-old Delvin Baes, along the side of a road in Jessup, Maryland, officials said.

“It’s very special for all of us,” Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said.

“You hope, you hope, you hope, but you don’t always know that it will end this way.”

She has suffered some injuries and is being taken to a nearby hospital in Columbia, Maryland for treatment, police said.

Carlesha Freeland-Gaither called for help as she was pulled into a man’s car. Picture: Philadelphia Police Department Source: Supplied

“I’m taking my baby home. Thank you,” Keisha Gaither, the woman’s overjoyed mother, said at a news conference.

Freeland-Gaither had been last seen on surveillance video being grabbed by a man and pulled toward a car Sunday night as she struggled to get away in Philadelphia’s Germantown neighbourhood.

Police and federal authorities had released a stream of images over the past two days from surveillance cameras in Maryland and from a Philadelphia supermarket hours before the abduction.

Suspect ... The man captured on CCTV at a gas station mini-mart in Aberdeen in connection to the abduction of Carlesha Freeland-Gaither from a Philadelphia street on Sunday night. Pic: AP Photo/Philadelphia Police Department Source: AP

The 22-year-old nursing assistant graduated from high school in Maryland and lived with her grandfather in Philadelphia until a couple of months ago, when she moved in with her boyfriend.

Her grandmother Ana Mulero says she has worked with cancer patients and has been pursuing a career in nursing.

Federal agents aiding in the multi-state search for her had released supermarket security video of a man they said was a person of interest.

The unknown man at an ATM machine in Aberdeen, Md., using Carlesha Freeland-Gaither's bank card. Pic: AP Photo/Philadelphia Police Department Source: AP

The video showed a man in a knit cap and dark coat walking down an aisle of a Philadelphia store and using a self-check-out station. A timestamp indicates the video was recorded eight hours before Freeland-Gaither disappeared.