A mother says her community shouldn\u2019t have to live in fear after thieves stole her car while her two-month-old baby was still inside.<\/p>\n
Queensland mum Sarah was cleaning her Isuzu D-Max in her driveway in Garbutt, Townsville on Monday when the offenders got in the car and began to drive off, leaving her fearing the worst.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just it happened so quickly and it was the longest two minutes of my life waiting for that car to turn around and drop her off,\u201d Sarah told Sunrise on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause as a mum, you\u2019re obviously expecting the absolute worst and you see what happens to the vehicles here, so your mind goes to some pretty crazy places.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sarah said theft was \u201csuch a common thing\u201d in her community and she wasn\u2019t the only victim.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou speak to people here and every second person has had a car stolen or they\u2019ve been broken into, and it\u2019s just such an invasion, and it\u2019s violating,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels disgusting \u2026 it\u2019s not fair. We shouldn\u2019t have to live in fear like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just me, I\u2019m talking on behalf of so many Townsvillians that go through this daily, and there needs to be something implemented, some harsher laws.\u201d<\/p>\n
CCTV footage shows Sarah yelling and chasing after the car while her baby was inside as the thieves drive off. <\/p>\n
It also shows the car returning to drop the baby, still asleep in her carseat, and Sarah\u2019s phone on the kerb.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were gentle and they were polite, which was the strangest thing to say,\u201d Sarah later told 7News.<\/p>\n
Police have charged eight teenagers and two adults in relation to the incident. <\/p>\n
They allegedly found seven stolen vehicles in total as part of their investigation into the Garbutt incident, however investigations remain ongoing to confirm the links.<\/p>\n
Police said the offenders allegedly stopped the car and \u201cplaced the baby in the car seat on the footpath before fleeing again\u201d.<\/p>\n
The thieves also returned Sarah\u2019s phone when they gave the baby back.<\/p>\n
When she asked what they were doing, they said they were \u201cjust bad guys\u201d.<\/p>\n
The baby was unharmed, Townsville police confirmed. <\/p>\n
Police said the Izuzu ute was located at a carpark on Charters Towers Rd around 9.45pm on Monday night, where they also found another allegedly stolen car, a Ford Ranger. <\/p>\n
That car was found engulfed in flames but was extinguished soon after. <\/p>\n
Seven of the eight teenage offenders will appear in Townsville Children\u2019s Court today while the eighth will appear on June 19.<\/p>\n
The two adult offenders, aged 18 and 21, will appear in Townsville Magistrates Court today.<\/p>\n
The offenders\u2019 ages range from 14-21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mother says her community shouldn\u2019t have to live in fear after thieves stole her car while her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":740855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44,187436],"class_list":["post-740854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news","tag-newswire-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/740855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}