For two hours yesterday a Canberra mother’s world stopped. Two hours in which her heart must have been torn apart: Her baby was missing. Stolen.
By a stranger she had tried to help.
The news went out mid-afternoon yesterday that a seven-month old baby had been taken, after the car he was in with his mother, was stolen. The Canberra mum had gone to the aid of a man on the side of the road in the Canberra suburb of Ngunnawal around 2pm.
His car had broken down, so she stopped to give him a hand. She left her vehicle with her baby, safely buckled in his car seat. She thought he was safe – just as any mother would. She thought she was being a Good Samaritan.
But to her horror the man she was helping ran off, jumped in her car and fled with her baby inside. The Canberra Tines reported that the car’s bonnet was up at the time and was flung off as the vehicle sped away.
A desperate search by police followed. The man’s description and the car’s number plate were widely distributed on social media.
Then two hours later, a breakthrough came, with a resident of Palmerston, a suburb only 400m away from where the crime took place, finding the baby.
The man had returned home to see the vehicle parked in his driveway.
A police statement said” “About 3.45pm, a member of the public located the silver Mazda, which had sustained damage, in the driveway of their residence in Palmerston when they returned home and reported it to police immediately.”
The Canberra Times reports that the baby was found not in the car but in a pram on the side porch and that the thief had broken through a gate to get the infant there. He then escaped.
The baby and his mother were reunited soon after.
Officers are now searching for the car thief – describing him as being of slim build, about 6’1”, Caucasian, aged in his 20s, wearing white Nike runners, shorts, a black T-shirt and a black baseball cap.
Detective Superintendent Turner thanked the Canberra community for their help in tracking down the baby.
Anyone who sees the man is urged not to approach him and to contact police on 000 or call Crimestoppers on 1800 333 000
Top Comments
16 years ago my neighbour was getting one of her 3 mth old twins into the pram outside the car when it started to drive off. She thought she had left the handbrake off but quickly realized someone was driving off with her other baby still in the car. Several hours of terror and heartache later the car was found on the side of a lonely road by a school boy riding his bike home but the bastard who stole it didn't have the decency to call the police and say where he had left the car. Little bub was fine but I'd say her poor dear Mum and Dad aged about 20 years on the spot.
Can you change the headline to "Now, THIS is every parent's nightmare"? Every day sexism. Thank you.
I think this is written this way because the mother was the one that was there and it is trying to capture the panic of the time. Of course it is every parents worst nightmare but if we are going to start nitpicking we could say its also every pet owners worst nightmare because some people treat their dogs like children and would be just as horrified if this happened to them.
Or change it to: worst nightmare almost come true. My worst nightmare is my child dying, not being inadvertently taken then found safe a few hours later.