The thought of this happening terrifies me. I ALWAYS lock the car up - even when I’m just parked in the driveway at home and leave my baby in the car whilst I unlock the front door. The car is in my sight the whole time and is only about 2 maybe 3 meters away but the couple of seconds it takes to lock/unlock is worth it in peace of mind.
Kudo’s to the thief for stopping and calling the police as soon as he realised there were kids in the car.
The thief may or may not have been the anonymous caller, leechbabe.
It must be a high anxiety being a parent in this modern world at times.
“Kudos” to the car thief? Are you kidding me? I might be willing to cut him some slack if decided not to commit grand theft and inadvertent kidnapping in the first place but he deserves no praise from me.
Well if it was the thief that called in (which now seems in doubt), I think he did the right thing, sure he shouldn’t have been going around stealing vehicles in the first place but at least he stopped and called the police once he realised there were kids in the car. Others may have just dumped the kids out on the side of the road or decided to go the whole way and try for a ransom.
That’s what I consider an amazingly happy ending. I heard a similar story on Oprah that ended extremely horribly. So much so that I’m not even going to tell it. ::shudder::
I have to say, that father is incredibly lucky. Don’t they have pay-at-the-pump there?
When I had my baby, someone advised me never to leave her anywhere I wouldn’t leave a million dollars—unlocked cars, etc. I have to say, there are plenty of places I might feel OK leaving a million dollars that I still wouldn’t feel OK leaving my baby.
Bad things do happen. They just do.
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“Kudos” to the car thief? Are you kidding me? I might be willing to cut him some slack if decided not to commit grand theft and inadvertent kidnapping in the first place but he deserves no praise from me.
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I disagree. He could have taken a lot of different paths once he discovered the children in the car. He chose to do the right thing at that point in time, despite the fact that he had already committed a felony. Lesser men would have turned this incident into a full-blown tragedy. I’d go so far as to say that his calling the police (or having someone do it for him) actually redeemed his first offense.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say redeemed – that’s pretty strong. I wouldn’t invite him to dinner afterwards, that much is certain. For sure it goes a long way, though.
Tell me about it-- I really learned my lesson after that unfortunate lockbox-under-the-floorboards incident.
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From the story:
“Ready to spring into action?” I know it’s literally true, but it sounds more optimistic than is probably warranted. “Ready to begin searching for the vehicle and making desperate appeals to the public for information” doesn’t quite scan, though.
This occurred in Australia…correct? Well there you have it. You guys even have a nicer bunch of thugs than we do. 
Those kids would/could have been sold black market so fast here it’s scary to imagine.
My wife used to ask why I made them lock the door whenever I left the car and they were in it, often taking the keys with me. Also locked in transit anywhere.
I had a guy try to get in at a 4-way stop in Huntsville before. The door was locked plus my model686 S&W .357 was laying on the passenger seat. He grabbed the door handle as I was grabbing the Smith. His eyes were like @@ … “F-that” he spun around and lit a shuck outta there.
Huntsville and much of East Texas has roadsigns w/ the following, “hitch hickers may be escaped inmates”. :eek:
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“Kudos” to the car thief? Are you kidding me? I might be willing to cut him some slack if decided not to commit grand theft and inadvertent kidnapping in the first place but he deserves no praise from me.
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I totally agree!
First of all I think that it is complete irresponsibility on the parents behalf to have even stepped out of that vehicle without his children.
I don’t see how anyone could get out of a car with a 3 and a 5 year old in there and go inside…
I think the government should take actions against him as well.
I might be harsh but thats life. Hope he learned a lesson. Unfortunately this lesson was too high of a price emotionally for 2 small children.:mad:
“It seems I must move 20 feet away to complete a 30 second transaction. Rationally I must take my children with me, hopefully inside a tank and armed with .50 caliber rifles”. Although if he did leave the keys in the car that was pretty dumb.
For what? It’s not like he locked them in the car while gambling at the casino for 4 hours.
20 bucks says it was a lot harder on him than the two kids.