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Thursday March 11, 2010

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Terrifying ordeal for mother and child

Posted by: 3AW Radio and Thomas Hunter | 5 February, 2010 - 12:20 AM

A mother and her toddler are recovering from a harrowing ordeal in which a bandit threatened a three-year-old girl with a knife while demanding cash in Melbourne's west late yesterday.

Carly, 25, said she finished shopping at the Melton West shopping centre on Coburns Road and High Street about 6.20pm and returned to her car, strapping her daughter into her seat.

As she sat in the driver's seat, a balaclava-wearing man armed with a knife opened the car’s front passenger door.

She said when she tried to get out of the car he started threatening her.

‘"He held the knife closer to (my daughter) and that's when I knew he wasn't playing," she told Radio 3AW today.

"He's told me he'd hurt my daughter if I didn't get back in the car. He asked me for money. I said I had none. He told me to go to the ATM and get more and leave my daughter with him. I said I didn't have any in there and he told me to go home and get more."

Carly said the man became emotional during the attack, telling her he had a drug problem and he didn't want to do rob her.

But his apparent remorse didn't stop him from forcing to ring her partner, who was at home, and tell him to have more money ready. He then ordered her to drive to her house.

When they arrived they were met at the woman’s house by her partner, who passed a small amount of cash through a gap in the window, before he told the woman to drive on.

She said her partner felt helpless, watching the driver drive away with his partner and daughter inside.

"He didn't know if he was going to see us again," she said.

Police said he then ordered Carly to drive to the Melton Waves leisure centre.

He told the woman to get out of the car with her daughter, and then drove off in her vehicle, a 1994 aqua Ford Falcon, registration NAO 200.

Detective Sergeant Mark Guthrie said the attack was a 'disgrace' and appealed for anyone with information about the incident to contact police.

"We are also appealing to the offender to come forward. At one stage there he has got a little bit teary when he was speaking to the victims. We know that he’s got a conscience and hopefully he'll come forward."

Police said the attack lasted around 10 minutes and 'the mother and daughter were shaken but uninjured'.

The offender was described as fair-skinned, with fair or reddish hair, unshaven and wearing a black balaclava and dark coloured clothing.


Blog comments Your Say

  • Nice work "The Economist" maybe they are doing it to keep the real estate prices in Melton low or something like that!What a d---head!

    Davey Boy Friday 5 February, 2010 - 9:52 PM

  • Of course people are assuming the story is true.

    However as our Indian arsonist and "balloon body" have proven in recent times, not all stories that get into the media will end up being true.

    This one may be, but it is always possible it might not be.

    Let's see what the police investigation turns up.

    The Economist Friday 5 February, 2010 - 2:16 PM

  • When we will learn? It is not the one who use the drug it is the one who sale the drug. We should ask Singapore government how to deal with the drug trafficking. You do not have this problem in Singapore.

    nick Friday 5 February, 2010 - 9:36 AM

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