A 27-year-old man from Merriwa will appear before the Perth Magistrates Court today, 2 April 2022 after he arrested by Joondalup Detectives and charged with:
• Person Forcibly/Fraudulently Takes/Entices Away/Detains a Child under 16;
• Steal Motor Vehicle; and
• Exceed 0.05g alcohol per 100ml of blood.
About 9.30pm last night, (1 April 2022) a woman in her 30s was driving her white Toyota Rav4 in which the man was a passenger. The victim’s five-year-old daughter was also in the vehicle.
The victim stopped the car at a café located on Main Street in Osborne Park and went inside to purchase a cake. When she came back outside, her vehicle with her daughter in it were missing.
It is alleged the charged man got into the driver’s seat when the woman went inside the café, started the vehicle and drove away. The five-year-old girl was still asleep in her car seat in the rear passenger seat.
Police sighted the vehicle travelling west along Ocean Reef Road in Edgewater and when the vehicle stopped at a red light at the entry onto the freeway, police safely intercepted the vehicle.
The man was taken into custody, and the five-year-old girl who was unharmed and still in her car seat, was taken by police to be reunited with her mother.
