Two children are safe after the minivan they were in was stolen from a Plant City gas station late Sunday night.

Susan Davidson, 61, of Hudson, stopped to get gas at the Marathon on Branch Forbes Road near I-4 at 11 p.m. Davidson left the door open and the engine running while she pumped gas because her grandchildren were watching a movie.

That's when deputies say a masked man got into her minivan.

"The next thing I know, I'm beating and chasing, pulling at him, trying to get him out," Davidson said. "He kicks me. He shuts the door on my arm."

Davidson watched the van speed away with her grandchildren inside, her heart sinking.

"It's your biggest nightmare," she said.

But 4-year-old Amelia Bader said she wasn't scared at all.

"Because I'm big," she said.

Amelia said the suspect pulled over and took off when he realized they were in the van with him.

About 20 minutes later, deputies found the minivan, with the children still inside, a half-mile away. Amelia and her 2-year-old brother, Andrew, were still in their car seats. They were not injured.

"Andrew was scared because he wanted Grammy," Amelia said about the carjacking.

The 4-year-old girl said she tried to keep her little brother calm, and that the man who had stolen the van didn't say a word.

"And I didn't even say anything to him," she said.

Amelia said the next time the family stops for gas, she plans to remind her grandmother to turn off the car and close her door.

"Nobody bad is going to get in," she said.

Davidson said the ordeal last about 20 minutes. She said she hopes authorities find the suspect and arrest him.

"He needs to be off the street and, as Amelia says, fired and put in jail," she said.

Officials said they did not have a good description of the suspect, only saying that he had a mask on.