The thieves had abandoned him in a parking lot, and police located the Atlas nearby.

Although the delay getting GPS information from Car-Net didn’t result in any harm to the toddler, it frustrated the police, who said they hadn’t encountered such a demand before.

“Most companies are very good with providing information [when] it could save lives,” Covelli said. “We’ve never had a major delay because we had to provide payment first.”

VW, in a statement to the Post, apologized for the representative’s failure to follow procedure for handling emergency requests from law enforcement.

“Unfortunately, in this instance, there was a serious breach of the process,” the statement read. “We are addressing the situation with the parties involved.”