A 27-year-old Merriwa man is before Perth courts after allegedly stealing a car while a five-year-old girl slept inside.
The girl’s mother stopped at Caffe Amaretto on Main Street in Osborne Park about 9.30pm on Friday and went inside to buy a cake, leaving the man, who was a passenger, and her child behind in the car.
When she came back outside her car and her daughter were missing, with the 27-year-old man allegedly driving away in it.
Caffe Amaretto owner Joyce Lipari told 9 News that she “felt sick” after the alleged incident
“She (the mother) wxjmtzywas very distressed, she was like a lunatic, which I would’ve been as well,” Ms Lipari said.
After discovering the mother had left her phone in the car, Ms Lipari got her to call it.
“Then he (the man) answered and she (the mother) was just going crazy saying ‘where are you, where’s the car, tell me where you are I’ll come to you’,” she said.
Police spotted the car 17km away along Ocean Reef Rd in Edgewater away and intercepted it.
The five-year-old girl was still asleep in the rear passenger seat when the car took off and was returned unharmed to her mother.
The man was charged with forcibly or fraudulently taking or enticing away or detaining a child under 16, stealing a motor vehicle and drink-driving.
