Garbutt carjacking: Queensland mum describes terrifying moment gang of teen thieves took off with baby in car

A Queensland mother has detailed the terrifying moment a group of teenagers allegedly stole her car while her baby was asleep in the backseat, describing the ordeal as “the most frightening couple of minutes of my life.”

Sarah had been cleaning the boot of her Isuzu D-Max as it was parked in the driveway at her home in Garbutt, Townsville on Monday afternoon when a group of alleged offenders jumped into the vehicle and sped off with her 2-month-old daughter still strapped into a car seat.

In a state of panic, Sarah ran after the car screaming for the convoy of thieves to bring back her baby.

About two minutes after vanishing down the street, the offenders returned to the front of the home in the stolen car and placed her baby, who was still asleep in her car seat, on the kerb before again fleeing in the vehicle, Queensland Police said in a statement.

But during those couple of minutes time stood still for Sarah, who recounted the heart-stopping ordeal to Sunrise on Tuesday morning.

“I didn’t rally have time to think to be honest, it kid of just happened so quickly and it was the longest two minutes of my life waiting for that car to turn around and drop her off“, she told host Matt Shirvington.

“As a mum, you are obviously expecting the absolute worst, and you see what happens to the vehicles here so your mind goes to some pretty crazy places.

“Having her back was just the instant relief. They can take the car, that’s replaceable, but to know my baby was in that vehicle when they are so erratic was the most frightening couple of minutes of my life.”

Before the thieves could flee after bringing her baby back, Sarah’s maternal instinct took over and she decided to confront the offenders.

“They turned around and had driven back and I saw the car coming so I went straight towards it, they pulled up a little bit ahead of me and placed the whole car seat out on the kerb, then they continued to keep driving and I just stood in front of them.” she said.

“I got to the passenger window and asked ‘why are you doing this, this is my family car, we work hard for this and we need this’ and they responded, ‘it’s because we are bad guys’.”

The stolen vehicle was located several hours later by police around 9.45pm at a nearby park. Multiple arrests have since been made.

“Eight teenagers and two adults have been charged and seven stolen vehicles recovered, including a black Isuzu MU-X, as part of investigations into a stolen vehicle incident at Garbutt yesterday afternoon, 15 June,” police said in a statement provided to The Nightly.

“Police coordinated a tyre deflation device strategy which disabled (5) stolen motor vehicles and resulted in the arrest of ten (10) offenders.”

“Investigations remain ongoing to confirm the links to the stolen vehicle incident.”

Sarah confirmed her baby daughter is doing well following the terrifying incident.

“(She) doesn’t even have any idea of what’s happened, luckily. She was asleep the whole entire time and even when they dropped her off they put her down in her car seat really calmly and gently and she was still strapped in asleep,” she added.

Despite the happy ending, Sarah said something needed to be done to stop the spike in youth crime in the area.

“This is not the first time this has happened, obviously having a car-jacking with a baby in the back yes, but cars being stolen and house broken into in the past and its such a common thing,” she said.

“You speak to people here and every second person has had a car stolen of they have been broken into. It’s such an invasion, it’s violating, it feels disgusting.

“They get out out of juvie and then they are just back on the road... it’s not fair we shouldn’t have to live in fear like that.

“I am really grateful they returned bub, but something needs to be done.”