Adelaide: Shock twist in baby taken in stolen car ordeal
An Adelaide mother has revealed a shock truth after her four-month-old son was taken when her car was stolen with him in the back seat.
The Adelaide mother who had her car stolen while her infant child was strapped in the back seat has opened up about the terrifying ordeal, revealing a shock twist in the story.
Erika Carter, 27, had stopped at a Klemzig deli to buy some bread on Monday and left her four-month-old son Jordan in the car “where he was safe” when every mother’s worst nightmare happened.
Ilias Sammy Latsis, 37, stole the woman’s white 2009 Honda Jazz sedan with her son inside.
CCTV footage shows Ms Carter running near the car as the driver began to flee the scene.
“I was just yelling, ‘My baby, my baby Jordan’, and I just couldn’t get to him. I thought the worst,” Ms Carter told 7 News.
“I made the wrong decision to leave bubs for that split second.”
After making an immediate panicked call to police, the search for Jordan began.
It lasted about three hours before her car was found dumped about 4km away at Enfield.
“I just ran to him and took him into my arms. I was so grateful to see that he wasn’t harmed,” Ms Carter said.
“He’s so lucky.”
In a shock twist revealed in her interview, she said she too had been taken as a child.
When she was just 11 years old, Ms Carter was forced into the back of a car while walking along Avocet St in Holden Hill in 2007.
She said she was unable to unlock the door and get away.
“I was walking my mum’s dog and (I was) grabbed behind a ‘for lease’ sign and put into a car,” she said
“It’s just flashback after flashback that took me years to get over.”
During his first court appearance on Tuesday, Latsis, of Para Hills, pleaded guilty to three charges, including abducting a child.
Defence lawyer Stephen Ey said his client held “profound remorse”, hence his early guilty plea and told reporters outside court the defendant did not know the child was inside when he stole the vehicle.
“And that’s why he panicked,” the lawyer said.
Latsis is due to reappear in court later this month.
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