Fearful CCTV footage has emerged of a helpless mother chasing down a guy who reportedly sped away in her car with her four-month-old baby still inside, sparking a frantic two-hour hunt throughout Adelaide.
On Monday morning in Klemzig, the young woman left the car running and her son in the back seat as she dashed inside a deli to buy a loaf of bread.
A man in a black Mazda BT-50 drives up alongside the Honda Jazz seconds later, authorities believe, stolen from Black Forest earlier in the morning.
CCTV shows the man looking through the rear window of the Honda Jazz and realises the motor is still running with no one behind the wheel.
He returns to the Mazda to retrieve a backpack before jumping into Honda Jazz and reverses out.
The frantic woman races into the carpark and jumps in front of the car, screaming at the alleged thief to stop as he speeds away.
Police believe the alleged incident was an opportunistic theft.
‘Mum described that the baby was seated in a capsule in the rear seat… at the time with mum trying to intervene and stop him from leaving,’ Superintendent Matt Nairn said.
He said the mother was ‘extremely relieved and very, very happy to be reunited with (her) baby’.
‘It’s probably the greatest amount of distress to any parent to see this happen. It is a reminder to any parent – be careful,’ Supt Nairn said.
‘I don’t believe the mother has done anything wrong … we’re not apportioning any blame to the mum at all.’
As CCTV photographs of the driver were revealed, Senior Constable Gen Cullinan claimed the automobile appeared to be stolen ‘at random.’
‘It appears they discarded one car and then tried to take another automobile,’ he told ABC Radio Adelaide. ‘There’s no suggestion these persons are acquainted to each other.’
According to deli worker Allan Porter, the mother jumped in front of the automobile to try to prevent the driver from driving away in her car.
He told The Advertiser that the customer came racing out to try to stop him. “She sort of went in front of the car, but she moved back a little bit because she believed she’d get run over,” he said.
‘She was only in here for a minute or two, it all happened so quick. I ran to the window, but by the time I saw him he was in the car and had a surgical mask on so I could only see his eyes.’
Another told Seven News: ‘I was serving a customer at the time, and she happened to look out the window and noticed that someone was jumping in her car, and she dropped everything and ran out to try to stop him, but he just drove away
‘He was wearing a mask so I couldn’t identify (him).
‘She was hysterical, and wanted a phone to call the police.
