{"id":414264,"date":"2026-05-06T08:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T08:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/414264\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T08:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T08:44:09","slug":"theresa-johnson-stole-car-with-baby-inside-then-dumped-infant-on-side-of-road-before-driving-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/414264\/","title":{"rendered":"Theresa Johnson stole car with baby inside, then dumped infant on side of road before driving off"},"content":{"rendered":"

Johnson, 59, who is listed as a \u201ccaregiver\u201d in court documents, appeared in the Hamilton District Court <\/a>this afternoon on several charges, including abandoning a baby, careless driving, driving while disqualified, theft of a motor vehicle, breach of community work and theft of clothing worth $1400.<\/p>\n

\u2018Abruptly cut in front of traffic\u2019<\/p>\n

The incident happened about 1.15pm on February 6 last year when a couple stopped at the Golden Crust Bakery on Gladstone Rd, Gisborne, to get some lunch.<\/p>\n

The woman and her partner went into the bakery, leaving their 4-month-old strapped in her car seat, and with the keys in the ignition to leave the air conditioning on.<\/p>\n

Shortly after, Johnson appeared and got into the driver\u2019s seat before pulling out of the carpark and cutting off traffic.<\/p>\n

She then pulled into the \u201cmedium lane\u201d, travelling west at speed along Gladstone Rd, before turning abruptly back into the left-hand lane without signalling and cutting in front of other vehicles.<\/p>\n

Johnson then turned left on to Carnarvon St towards Childers Rd.<\/p>\n

She then realised the baby was in the back, so pulled over on Childers Rd and removed the infant and car seat.<\/p>\n

She put the baby in her seat on the edge of the footpath before driving off, and made no attempts to return the child or contact anyone.<\/p>\n

A charge of theft of property worth $1400 related to Johnson stealing a man\u2019s washing from a Hamilton laundromat on July 1, 2025.<\/p>\n

\u2018She is extremely, extremely remorseful\u2019<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s counsel, Rebecca Senar, told Judge Swaran Singh that there was \u201cno amount of remorse that\u2019s going to take away the hurt that this family have suffered\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s accepted by Ms Johnson,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is extremely, extremely remorseful and was grateful that no harm was caused to that child on the day in question.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said her client could pay back the theft victim at $10 per week.<\/p>\n

When asked by Judge Singh about his proposal to issue $500 emotional harm, Senar agreed it would be suitable but said it would take her client some time to pay back.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is she is only left with $85 after her rent is paid.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"TheresaTheresa Anne Johnson, 59, grabbed a face mask after noticing media outside the Hamilton District Court this afternoon. Photo \/ Belinda Feek<\/p>\n

The judge said he would set the repayments at $20 a week, given how long it would likely take her to repay.<\/p>\n

Senar said her client had spent 50 days in custody after being arrested and asked the judge to take that into account.<\/p>\n

\u2018She hopes to set up a hairdressing business\u2019<\/p>\n

Judge Singh noted Johnson had previous convictions for dishonesty, violence and driving offences.<\/p>\n

She told a pre-sentence report writer that she was high on meth at the time.<\/p>\n

She\u2019d also suffered trauma over the loss of her mother and had a bike accident aged 7, which caused memory loss that still affected her.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have also advised that you were bullied and subjected to abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with being a caregiver, Johnson told the writer she was a hairdresser and she hoped to set up a hairdressing business soon.<\/p>\n

Judge Singh told her that if she did, she should increase her repayments to the court.<\/p>\n

He took a starting point of 24 months\u2019 prison before allowing discounts for her plea, remorse, personal circumstances and previous convictions, arriving at 17 months\u2019 jail.<\/p>\n

He took off a further three months for her 47 days in custody and got down to 14 months.<\/p>\n

However, as she had not served a home detention sentence before, he agreed to convert that to eight months\u2019 home detention with nine months\u2019 post-detention conditions.<\/p>\n

Judge Singh also disqualified her from driving for nine months.<\/p>\n

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Johnson, 59, who is listed as a \u201ccaregiver\u201d in court documents, appeared in the Hamilton District Court this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6794,1863,9218,3944,43714,4189,20106,20211,2959,12518,2944,8274,101,13240,111,43,139,69,1118,6662,90,1523,26525,1314,7248,6102,1346,212999,107,59867,102,1354],"class_list":["post-414264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-baby","tag-back","tag-before","tag-car","tag-discovering","tag-driving","tag-drove","tag-dumped","tag-high","tag-infant","tag-inside","tag-johnson","tag-left","tag-methamphetamine","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-off","tag-on","tag-over","tag-pulled","tag-road","tag-seat","tag-side","tag-stole","tag-strapped","tag-then","tag-theresa","tag-with","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}