diff --git a/server/sandbox.go b/server/sandbox.go
index 796e2c30..5f359f4e 100644
--- a/server/sandbox.go
+++ b/server/sandbox.go
@@ -294,9 +294,21 @@ func (s *Server) RemovePodSandbox(ctx context.Context, req *pb.RemovePodSandboxR
 
 	// Delete all the containers in the sandbox
 	for _, c := range sb.containers.List() {
+		if err := s.runtime.UpdateStatus(c); err != nil {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to update container state: %v", err)
+		}
+
+		cState := s.runtime.ContainerStatus(c)
+		if cState.Status == ContainerStateCreated || cState.Status == ContainerStateRunning {
+			if err := s.runtime.StopContainer(c); err != nil {
+				return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to stop container %s: %v", c.Name(), err)
+			}
+		}
+
 		if err := s.runtime.DeleteContainer(c); err != nil {
 			return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to delete container %s in sandbox %s: %v", c.Name(), sandboxID, err)
 		}
+
 		if podInfraContainer == c.Name() {
 			continue
 		}
diff --git a/test/pod.bats b/test/pod.bats
index 7713afa6..1bc20142 100644
--- a/test/pod.bats
+++ b/test/pod.bats
@@ -33,3 +33,28 @@ function teardown() {
 	stop_ocid
 	cleanup_pods
 }
+
+@test "pod remove" {
+	# this test requires docker, thus it can't yet be run in a container
+	if [ "$TRAVIS" = "true" ]; then # instead of $TRAVIS, add a function is_containerized to skip here
+		skip "cannot yet run this test in a container, use sudo make localintegration"
+	fi
+
+	start_ocid
+	run ocic pod create --config "$TESTDATA"/sandbox_config.json
+	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+	echo "$output"
+	pod_id="$output"
+	run ocic ctr create --config "$TESTDATA"/container_redis.json --pod "$pod_id"
+	echo "$output"
+	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+	ctr_id="$output"
+	run ocic ctr start --id "$ctr_id"
+	echo "$output"
+	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+	run ocic pod remove --id "$pod_id"
+	echo "$output"
+	[ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+	stop_ocid
+	cleanup_pods
+}