‘This is just not on’: Car keys stolen from Townsville University Hospital maternity room

A young dad says he was shocked after the family car was stolen from the hospital car park while his wife was giving birth.

Mr Clarke said he's happy for people to memorise the Prado's number plate and alert the police if they see it. The plate is CAPRI5.

A young family who had their car stolen from the Townsville University Hospital car park while they were busy delivering their second child, have spoken out.

Anthony and Capri Clarke’s 2014 Toyota Prado was stolen out of the hospital parking lot on Thursday night, mere hours after their second child was delivered by caesarean.

“You hear that Townsville is pretty bad, but we live out at Jensen around big blocks with dogs and we didn’t have any issues,” Mr Clarke said.

“I’m not one to be loud about nothing, but this shit is not on. This cannot keep happening.”

The couple had arrived at hospital around 6.30am that morning for a scheduled C-section operation and were settled into a suite in the maternity ward, which is secured behind an extra door from the hospital.

(L-R) Kyper, 3, mother Capri, newborn Linkin and father Anthony Clarke had a Toyota Prado, baby capsule, booster seat and pram stolen from them.

“At 10am we were booked in for the operation, we left the room, and I left our bags and keys there,” Mr Clarke said.

After the delivery, Mr Clarke said they spent the rest of the day with their newborn in their shared suite “none the wiser” to the fact the keys were missing.

“I started looking for the keys around 8pm because partners can’t stay overnight,” he said.

“I couldn’t find the keys. I went through the bags two times, I even checked the bins because maybe I threw it out with a nappy.”

Finally admitting defeat, Mr Clark called his sister for a lift and planned to get the car’s spare keys from home - assuming the keys were simply misplaced.

“I said to Capri, ‘I’ll text you if the car is there, if it’s not I’ll call’ and she laughed at me,” Mr Clarke said.

“The hospital is the last place in the world you’d think you’d get your car stolen from.”

But once Mr Clarke got to the carpark around 9pm the 31-year-old father discovered that’s exactly what had happened.

The family’s Toyota Prado had been their family workhorse and was loaded with a new baby capsule, booster seat and pram.

“I went straight to security and they told me they had footage of the car smashing through the boom gates at five minutes to eight so it got flagged in their system,” he said.

“I wasted an hour or so looking through the bags, if I had just come down straight away maybe I could’ve done something.”

Mr Clarke reported the theft to police via policelink 131 444, and eventually officers attended.

“They let the cops watch the CCTV footage but not me,” Mr Clarke said.

“They might’ve been worried I would do some vigilante shit. But the security cameras were not up to standard, every angle they got of this person was blurry.”

Mr Clarke said he was then left to walk away “scratching his head”, going home to his three-year-old son and sister-in-law who was helping take care of the toddler.

“That car had everything in it. It had the brand new baby capsule, the toddler’s booster seat, the pram. We’re just lucky our bags were in the room.”

Mr Clarke said nothing was taken from their two bags - just the keys which were sitting between them on the table.

Thankfully the family has a second vehicle capable of fitting the children, but it’s older and doesn’t have a working aircon or similar mod cons.

Federal Member for Herbert Phillip Thompson has been in contact with the family since the car theft and said he didn’t understand how hospital CCTV footage could be so blurry when man could put a camera on Mars.

“The Queensland Government has been so light on criminals, they aren’t scared to steal car keys from a maternity ward,” Mr Thompson said.

As of print, police are still searching for the Clarke family’s stolen Toyota Prado which has a personalised black number plate with white symbols reading: CAPRI5

In a statement provided to the Townsville Bulletin, Townsville Hospital and Health Service executive Kieran Keyes said patient safety was their ‘most important priority’.

“We’re very sorry Mr and Mrs Clarke have had such a wonderful time in their lives, with the birth of a new baby, affected by this incident,” Mr Keyes said.

“I want to assure them we are doing everything we can to assist the Queensland Police Service with their investigation.

“The hospital has an extensive CCTV system and footage recorded from the night of the incident has been made available to the QPS.

“Our maternity unit has swipe-only access and is a safe and secure place for mothers and their babies.

“The safety of our patients and visitors continues to be our most important priority.”

Originally published as ‘This is just not on’: Car keys stolen from Townsville University Hospital maternity room