Melbourne mum targeted by masked teens reveals terrifying aftermath of Porsche carjacking attempt

A Melbourne mum targeted in her own driveway by masked teenagers intent on stealing her car says she needed months of therapy after becoming terrified to sleep, step outside her front door or drive to the shops.

Tasha Lazaridis became so hyper-vigilant after her family’s brazen attempted carjacking that every stranger became a potential threat and every vehicle pulling over sent her mind searching for an escape route.

“I’d wake up at midnight and look at the security cameras if I heard a car drive fast,” the 39-year-old told The Nightly.

“I’d just be glued to the cameras for hours.

“I was nearly scared to sleep in case something happened.”

In August last year, Ms Lazaridis, her husband Chris and their toddler Leo had returned to their Ashburton home about 6pm when she stepped out of the family’s Porsche Macan.

She turned around and saw two people wearing balaclavas approaching.

She scrambled back inside and yelled to her husband: “We’re getting robbed. We’re getting robbed.”

“I didn’t know what their intention was, but I knew their intentions weren’t good,” she said.

“I didn’t know whether it was because we had just opened the garage door. I thought, ‘Do they want to rob us? Are they going into our house?’

“At that moment, I just thought, ‘our lives are in danger. They’re trying to get us out of the car. They’re trying to get us’. That was the most terrifying thing.”

In the panic, Mr Lazaridis accelerated and the car’s doors locked.

He then reversed out of the driveway before hitting the alleged getaway car as the family fled with their terrified toddler screaming in the back seat.

The family believes they may have been followed from Melbourne’s south-east, possibly from the freeway, but still does not know exactly where the alleged offenders first spotted them.

“I think for me the most traumatising thing after that experience was thinking about what could have potentially happened,” Ms Lazaridis said.

“If I hadn’t jumped back in the car that quickly, or didn’t have time to get back in and lock the doors, they probably would have taken the car with my son still strapped in because it would have taken them too long to get him out.”

Teenagers allegedly involved in the attack were arrested days later following a high-speed police pursuit in another stolen car.

“I think, what if they had got into a high-speed police chase with our two-year-old in the back seat?” she said.

Ms Lazaridis said she and her husband did not see a weapon during the attack, but later noticed on the CCTV footage that one of the alleged offenders appeared to have a hand in a pocket.

“I think we were very lucky; we acted very quickly … it could have gone very differently, as it has for other people,” she said.

Almost 13 months later, Ms Lazaridis is speaking out about the ongoing toll of the attack as new crime figures reveal carjacking remains at historically high levels in Victoria despite falling sharply over the past year.

Crime Statistics Agency data shows 399 carjacking and attempted carjacking offences were recorded in Victoria in the year to June 2026.

Victoria Police says carjackings and attempted carjackings fell 25.4 per cent over the same period.

Despite the fall, the latest total is 77 per cent higher than the 225 offences recorded in 2018 and is the second-highest annual figure in the nine years since.

For the Lazaridis family, the attack changed how they live.

“I was scared to even go for a walk with Leo in the pram after this event because you just never think that’s going to happen to you,” Ms Lazaridis said.

“You see it on the news and think, ‘I’m in a safe neighbourhood’, or ‘we don’t go out late’.

“Until it happens to you, and then you realise actually this can happen to anybody, at any time of day, in any neighbourhood.”

The family installed gates across their driveway and upgraded their security, while neighbours created WhatsApp groups to alert each other to suspicious activity.

“So many things have changed since this event,” Ms Lazaridis said.

“Even the way I’ll leave the house is different now.”

She began buckling Leo into his seat, getting into the car and locking the doors before opening the garage and driveway gates.

Taking him to childcare became another ordeal.

“I’d get out of the car and lock the car, just to walk around the car and unlock it to get him out,” she said.

“I was just so hyper-vigilant.

“It was very stressful to be that aware of all of my surroundings 24 hours a day.”

Therapy, and security upgrades, have helped her gradually regain a sense of calm.

“I don’t think cameras really deter them because they’re wearing balaclavas, so I don’t think they really care,” she said.

“The house is very, very secure, but again, I think that if someone really wants to do something, they will find a way.

“I actually don’t think anyone’s safe.”

Despite that, the family has decided not to leave Ashburton.

“I love that neighbourhood so much,” Ms Lazaridis said.

“We were just picked up on a freeway, so if we lived in any other suburb, that’s where they would have committed that crime.

“And it’s happening all over Melbourne anyway. It’s like, where do you move?”

Four teenagers — three boys and one girl — were charged over the incident. Ms Lazaridis said the three boys were already on bail at the time of the alleged attempted carjacking.

Ms Lazaridis attended the 13-year-old’s bail hearing and later prepared to give evidence, but detectives subsequently told her the charges would not proceed because prosecutors could not overcome doli incapax.

Doli incapax means prosecutors must prove a child aged 10 to 13 knew their alleged conduct was seriously wrong, rather than merely naughty.

Ms Lazaridis remains furious about the outcome and what she sees as a justice system failing to stop repeat young offenders.

“How many times does it take for someone to realise?” she said.

“How many carjackings? How many home invasions?”

Ms Lazaridis said she was particularly frustrated by arguments she heard during the bail hearing about the potential consequences of keeping a child in custody.

“I had to listen to the defence constantly argue that if he’s kept in remand, he’ll miss out on school, or if he’s kept in remand, he’s more likely to reoffend, and that’s what’s really frustrating,” she said.

“They’re always out on bail. It is not making any difference.

“They keep reoffending because they know they get away with it, and the people that pay the price are innocent people.

“It could have been my two-year-old son paying the price.”

Victoria has significantly tightened its bail and youth justice laws since the attack, including tougher bail tests for alleged repeat offenders and new laws under which children aged 14 and over who commit serious violent crimes, including carjacking, can face adult sentences in adult courts.

The reforms also expanded Victoria’s carjacking laws to specifically cover stealing a vehicle with a child under 10 inside, regardless of whether the offender knew the child was there.

Ms Lazaridis said her anger was now directed more at the State Government than the teenagers who allegedly targeted her family.

“We’re hardworking. We pay our taxes. We do no wrong. We follow all the laws, and we get no support from the government,” she said.

“We need a change in government in Victoria.

“Everywhere you look, people are struggling for different reasons. Whether it’s financial, small businesses closing down or victims of crime.

“Nobody feels safe anymore.”