‘Screaming for help’: Woman recalls man stealing car with her son inside

A man has been charged after attempting to steal a car with a 3-year-old child inside from a parking lot on Colonel Talbot Road.

A London woman says she’s “deeply angry” after a man tried to steal a car while her 3-year-old son was in the backseat.

It happened shortly after 3:30 p.m. on Friday at the parking lot of the Best Western Hotel off Colonel Talbot Road and Hwy 401.

“My mother-in-law (MIL) and I had picked a spot along Hwy 401 to exchange my son so he could spend the long weekend with his grandparents,” the woman explained, who does not want to share her identity to protect her privacy.

That’s when her worst nightmare happened. She said after closing the back door, a man suddenly opened the driver’s door, got in, and started the car.

“We quickly opened the doors to let him know my son was inside, I tried to unbuckle my son when the man hit the gas and sped forward,” she continued. “I had one foot in the vehicle and fell to the ground but quickly got up, all while my MIL and I were screaming for help.”

The man sped off with her son in the car and came to a stop about 100 feet away.

“I ran to it and opened the back passenger door, he gestured for me to take out my son, I quickly removed him from the vehicle just as the man sped away again,” she recalled.

A bystander called police. Officers responding learned as the vehicle fled the area, the suspect male driver almost caused several collisions.

Police located the vehicle in the 6000 block of Colonel Talbot Road after receiving a report of a single vehicle collision into a ditch.

Officers arrived and located the suspect exiting the vehicle. Police attempted to arrest the man when he fled from officers on foot.

The suspect was arrested a short distance away. Police say a search of the man yielded a quantity of drugs.

No injuries were reported.

“I felt relief knowing the man was in custody, but it was quickly followed by a gut-wrenching thought—what if my son had still been in that vehicle and been seriously hurt in the crash,” questioned the woman.

As a result of the investigation, a 35-year-old Maidstone man has been charged with the following offences:

• Theft of a motor vehicle.
• Kidnapping
• Two counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle
• Resist arrest
• Impaired exceed blood drug concentration
• Possession of a Schedule I substance.

The accused remains in custody and scheduled to reappear in London court Wednesday in relation to the charges.

Anyone with information in relation to this incident is asked to call the London Police Service at [phone] or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477). Information can also be sent in online anonymously to London Middlesex Crime Stoppers.