A young mother whose four-month-old baby was briefly stolen in an alleged carjacking has opened up about the ‘horrific’ experience.
Karlee Gibbs, 23, was packing the boot of her grey Nissan Patrol after buying groceries at the Yeppoon Shopping Centre, in Queensland, at midday on Wednesday when an alleged thief snuck into the front seat and drove off.
To Ms Gibbs’ horror, her four-month-old baby Aubrey was still inside.
‘I screamed “my baby, my baby’s in that car”,’ she told 7 News.
‘She eventually came back, wouldn’t stop. However, she kept saying “get the baby out, get the baby out”.
Her partner, Harleigh Baker, posted on Facebook: ‘Car has been found and everything is all good. Karlee and bubs are doing fine at home’
‘It was just horrific. My heart sank knowing not knowing if I was gonna get my baby back.
‘It’s so hard to believe that it’d happen to you. Like, you always see it in, like, movies, but you don’t ever think that it’s going to happen to you. So I was just, my main focus was trying to get my baby back.’
Ms Gibbs’ partner, Harleigh Baker, posted on Facebook that mother and baby were safe.
‘Car has been found and everything is all good. Karlee and bubs are doing fine at home,’ he wrote.
CCTV footage of the incident shows a woman wearing a distinctive red bucket hat casually approaching the car’s driver side door before quickly jumping into the vehicle.
Footage from the Yeppoon shopping centre’s car park shows the thief casually approaching the car’s driver side door before driving away (pictured)
The car’s boot remains open as the thief drives away causing the woman’s shopping to spill over the floor of the centre’s car park (pictured)
Karlee Gibbs has spoken about the ‘horrific’ experience of having her car stolen with her baby still inside
She is seen in the video jumping behind the wheel as the mother loaded groceries into the boot.
The mother then runs up to the front of the car and tries to open the driver’s door.
The boot remains open as the car drives awa,y causing the shopping to spill onto the floor of the car park.
Queensland Police said once the woman who was driving the vehicle realised the child was inside, she returned to the scene and dropped off the baby.
Police allege the woman then drove away before crashing into two people, including a young mum who has been left with fractured ribs.
Phoebe Halson, 21, had just arrived at the shopping centre when she heard tyres screeching and a woman screaming.
Phoebe Halson has been left with three cracked ribs after turning her back to the speeding car to protect her two-year-old son
‘We ran over. We thought the baby had actually been hit by a car because we saw her pram’s capsule laying on the ground,’ she told The Courier Mail.
‘We thought the baby had been hit and we were like ‘oh my god’.
‘But she’s screaming and she goes ‘no my baby, my baby, my baby, my baby – she took my baby.’
Ms Halson tried to comfort the distraught mother.
‘So we were standing in the middle of the loading bay where we were trying to console this mother and then the car’s come flying back around and drove through the exit-way down the ramp going 50km at least,’ she said.
Ms Halson, who had her two-year-old son in her arms, screamed at the car to stop.
But the car failed to stop and she did not have enough time to get out of the way.
‘My son was completely okay thankfully,’ she said. ‘I shielded his whole body with my own.’
Ms Halson suffered three cracked ribs, a stomach tear and fluid around her spleen.
She said another woman and a teen were also struck by the car as it went past.
A 16-year-old male and a 39-year-old woman were taken to Yeppoon Hospital after sustaining injuries to their legs.
Police are appealing to the public for help in identifying this woman. She was seen walking with a man inside the shopping centre prior to the incident (pictured)
Police are appealing to the public for help in identifying the woman who allegedly stole the vehicle.
The woman was seen wearing a grey top, a dark coloured jacket, dark coloured jeans and a red bucket hat.
Video footage also shows the blonde woman walking with a man inside the shopping centre prior to the incident.
Police investigations are ongoing. Anyone with information, dashcam or CCTV of the stolen vehicle is urged to contact police or call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
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