Man visiting ill wife victim of ‘traumatic’ Campbelltown Hospital carjacking
While visiting his wife in Campbelltown Hospital, Eliot Cohen was caught off guard when a man snatched his keys and stole his car in a brazen daylight theft.
NSW
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Mr Cohen, 50, from Panania said he was "dumbfounded" as the man snatched his keys before driving off in the family's 2014 Hyundai Elantra in broad daylight.
“I thought it had to be road rage or something, but he came up to me and was being really aggressive, demanding “get out of the f***ing car”,” Mr Cohen said.
“It was totally unexpected, I was holding my bunch of keys, he pulled the car key hard and it came away from the rest of my keys … next thing I know he’s jumped in the car, started it and driven off.”
iPads belonging to the Cohens’ 9 and 10 year-old children plus a brand new Nintendo Switch and an “expensive” camera tripod were all in the back of the car as the alleged thief drove away.
Mr Cohen’s wife Charmaine has been in hospital since June 11 after emergency surgery for a perforated small intestine, while Flight Centre employee Mr Cohen is surviving on Jobkeeper due to the pandemic.
Mr Cohen said the carjacking was “one hurdle after another” for his family to deal with.
“You don’t really think about these things happening, you see them in movies but don’t think it’d happen to you,” he said.
“You just feel violated when someone steals your stuff … my daughter’s upset because she’s lost a lot of photos and memories stored on that iPad, and my son only just got that Nintendo Switch for his birthday, so he’s upset too.”
Mr Cohen tried to give chase but then called police who arrived soon after.
Campbelltown Chief Inspector Mick Moroney confirmed officers were investigating the “unusual” incident through CCTV footage and a 47 year-old man had been arrested after attempting to cross the QLD border at Tenterfield two days after it was stolen.
The man, who is known to police, will now be extradited back to NSW and charged, Chief Insp Moroney said.
“It’s an outstanding result, this family will now get their car back and more importantly this man will be in custody,” he said.
“The victim was unfortunately a random target in a significant and traumatic incident mentally and financially … this was an unusual thing to happen in the Campbelltown area.”
Mrs Cohen, 44, said she was “over the moon” the car had been found but was even more overjoyed after her husband was contacted by a good Samaritan who found the children’s iPads on the mid-north coast.
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They found the iPads, the Switch and some other things dumped in a bag on the side of the road in Forster, we couldn’t believe it,” Ms Cohen said.
“The kids were over the moon and so were we, but even if the car and iPads hadn’t been found it would’ve been okay. I count my blessings Eliot wasn’t hurt, that’s the main thing.
Mr Cohen said he believed the incident was simply a case of “wrong place at the wrong time”.
“You hope he was some guy who needed to get somewhere … he handed me my wallet and keys before he drove off, which was the weird thing,” he said.
“I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and he opportunistically went for it.”
Originally published as Man visiting ill wife victim of ‘traumatic’ Campbelltown Hospital carjacking