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TUCSON - Nearly 3 weeks ago, Tucson police turned this city upside down looking for a kidnapped 5th grader.

On February 11th, police say, a man in a blue van abducted the girl while she was walking to school with her sister.

She managed to get away, and got help from a city parks employee on the west side.

Not long after that, police tracked down her accused abductor Steve McPherson, thanks to witnesses who got a partial license plate number.

This frightening ordeal came to a safe ending, thanks to good police work and witnesses working together. A partnership that can clearly be heard on the 9-1-1 calls recorded that day.

9-1-1 calls you'll hear for the first time. News 4 obtained the recordings from Tucson Police.

First call comes in at 8:25 A-M.

9-1-1 Dispatcher: Tucson police, Chavez

Caller: Hello somebody take the kid somebody stole the baby.

Dispatcher: Miracle Mile and 14th

Caller: Yes

The phone is handed to another woman who came to help the 9 year old girl who managed to escape.

Caller: Hello

Dispatcher: Yeah, what happened?

Caller: I heard a little girl screaming down the road I ran down the road and she's screaming and I thought the guy tried to her up and he didn't do it but he picked up her sister. He took her sister. It was like a blue mini van.

Dispatcher: Where is the sister of this girl?

Caller: She's right here with us.

Second call comes in at 8:27am

Dispatcher: Tucson Police Jackson

Caller: Some guy in a mini van tried to pick up a little girl on 14th and Laguna.

Dispatcher: Which direction did he leave out in?

Caller: Towards Miracle Mile towards the cemetery.

Dispatcher: Is the little girl o-k?

Caller: Yes, she's a little a shook up.

The final call comes from city parks at 8:40 AM

Dispatcher: Tucson Police Rincon

Caller: I just got a call from one our parks grounds man at Murrieta park and he says he found a little girl who was abducted.

Eighteen minutes later, Steve McPhearson is detained.

From start to end, it took Tucson police 33-minutes to save a child's life.