YOUNGSTOWN — The father of three sleeping children in the back of a minivan stolen from the parking lot of a Mahoning Avenue convenience store has sued the store chain.

Brian VanDusen filed the suit in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, seeking monetary damages from the company. The suit alleges Circle K Stores Inc. failed to provide adequate security at the store. The children and the van were quickly found unharmed.

The Nov. 5, 2022, incident began when VanDusen’s driver pulled into the parking lot of the Mahoning Avenue Circle K store at about 2 a.m. with his three young kids sleeping in the back, according to a Youngstown police report and VanDusen’s lawsuit. VanDuesen went into the store, and when he came back out, the van and his kids were gone.

VanDusen called 911 to report the kidnapping but also “accessed the real-time tracking device, which was on the van,” a Youngstown police report stated. It told VanDusen the van was now in the 300 block of Argo Street about 1.5 miles away. Another man who had been parked next to the stolen van agreed to take the father to Argo Street, the report states.

While officers were en route to Circle K, they were advised the father had tracked the van on Argo Street, so officers headed there.

“As we arrived on Argo Street, we observed a male Hispanic wearing a black shirt, camo hat and blue pants walking on the side of the road with three young girls beside him,” the report states.

The officers then detained the man, identified as Abraham I. Jimenez-Zenquiz, then 23, of Mahoning Avenue, police said. None of the girls — ages then 10, 8 and 4 — were injured, and they quickly were reunited with their father as he arrived, the report states.

One of the girls told police the children were asleep when Jimenez-Zenquiz woke them up and had them exit the van.

Jimenez-Zenquiz was later sentenced in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to 5 to 7 1/2 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of kidnapping and one count of grand theft of a motor vehicle.

VanDusen’s lawsuit alleges that he, his three children and VanDusen’s driver, Roger Mercer, were returning to Youngstown from Pittsburgh when they stopped at the store to pick up snacks for the children.

VanDusen went into the store, and Mercer stepped out of the van to stretch his legs and smoke a cigarette while the children slept, the suit states. Jimenez-Zenquiz then “jumped into the van and fled from the premises,” the suit states.

The suit adds that VanDusen was “familiar with” Jimenez-Zenquiz because VanDusen was a regular customer of the store. Jimenez-Zenquiz also was “a known figure” to store employees and patrons, “as he frequently engaged in threatening, harassing and intimidating behavior” toward workers.

“VanDusen himself had reported Mr. Jimenez-Zenquiz on the afternoon of Nov. 4, 2022,” the suit states. “After pumping gas into his vehicle on Nov. 4, 2022 … his vehicle would not restart. As … VanDusen and his sister waited for a tow truck, Mr. Jimenez-Zenquiz aggressively tried to pan-handle and harass them,” the suit states.

The lawsuit alleges negligence by Circle K in not “taking reasonable care to keep and maintain the premises in a condition reasonably safe for use by invitees and the public.” The suit seeks more than $25,000 in damages for each of the three children.

Attempts this week to get a comment from Circle K corporate offices regarding the lawsuit were not successful.

In February, Jimenez-Zenquiz, now 35, through a new attorney, asked Judge Anthony Donofrio of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to allow Jimenez-Zenquiz to rescind his guilty plea, and Judge Donofrio on Oct. 1 approved the motion.

The Mahoning County prosecutor’s office sought permission from the Seventh District Court of Appeals to appeal Judge Donofrio’s ruling, and the appeals panel granted it.

Both the lawsuit and appeal of Judge Donofrio’s ruling are pending.