A father lived his ‘worst nightmare’ when he realized that his car had been stolen with 2-year-old son in the back seat.
He had driven with his child asleep in the back, to the shop. The theft happened on Sunday at 3.45pm in Victoria, Australia. He was driving a grey Volkswagen Tiguan.
When he had arrived at the shop, he didn’t want to wake his sleeping son so he left the car running to keep the air conditioning on.
While in the shop, another man got in the car and drove away.
The dad then ran to the nearest kebab shop to get help. The shop employee, Christopher Hall, told 9NEWS:
“This guy just rushed into the store, he seemed visibly panicked, stressed, he was on the phone.”
Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Grant Lewis wrote in a statement:
“(He has) stolen that vehicle, driven about 350m through the rear of the Chelsea shops before he’s obviously realised there’s a child in the vehicle.”
“He’s then stopped the car, put the child on the side of the road … and driven off erratically southbound on Nepean Hwy towards Frankston.”
Members of the public rescued the child who they spotted on the side of the road.
Lewis added:
“He remained where he was, but he was very distraught,”
“A 30°C day with lots of cars and lots of traffic. You’d hate to think what could have happened”.
