HOUSTON — An 18-month-old toddler was found safe in Houston early today about a block away from a Walmart parking lot where his mother’s idling SUV had been stolen with him strapped into the back seat some 15 hours earlier.

Police and spectators cheered and applauded at the sight of Evan Montgomery Lamar Miller in his mother’s arms as she got into an ambulance shortly after the boy was pulled unharmed from the abandoned car, according to television reports.

Houston police spokesman Kese Smith said the boy was taken to the hospital for a checkup.

Evan’s mother left the 1996 Jeep Cherokee running about 5:45 p.m. Thursday when she ran into the Walmart, Houston police said. The boy’s 7-year-old girl cousin was in the car with him when a man got in and started driving off. The girl jumped out of the car.

Evan was found at the back of a strip mall less than a half-mile from the Walmart, Smith said. The reason they weren’t able to find him right away is because the car was parked behind a restaurant in a wooded area.

The high foliage made it difficult to spot the car, even from the air.