A mother tearfully recalled the terrifying moment a man pulled a knife on her and kidnapped her and her six-month-old daughter.
The woman, known as Kieren, had just parked at the supermarket in the Stud Park shopping center in Rowville, in Melbourne’s south-east, about 6pm last Friday when she was suddenly confronted by a man armed with a knife.
She was forced to get behind the wheel of her car and then spent the next two hours driving around Melbourne while her kidnapper ordered her to buy Apple MacBook laptops.
While Kieren and her baby were physically unharmed in the ordeal, the killer, described as being of Asian appearance and aged between 20 and 35, is still on the run and the mother is now too scared to even leave her house.
“I was getting my daughter out of the car seat and he appeared out of nowhere behind me with a knife,” Kieran told reporters during a police news conference on Friday.
“He just said ‘get in your car and drive.’
The woman, known as Kieren, had just parked at the Stud Park Shopping Center supermarket in Rowville, south-east of Melbourne, at around 6pm last Friday when she was suddenly confronted by a man armed with a knife.
“I just remember begging, ‘I have a daughter, you can have my car, you can have my wallet, you can have my phone, take everything, leave me with my daughter.’
“He kept demanding, ‘I don’t want your car, I don’t want your wallet, I don’t want your phone, just get in the car and drive.’
Kieren finally agreed and sat in the driver’s seat while the killer sat in the back with his daughter.
He ordered the mother to go to electrical stores in Cranbourne and Frankston and buy four Apple laptops while he stayed in the car.
Victoria Police have released photographs (pictured) of a man they want to speak to after a mother and her baby were kidnapped from a Melbourne shopping centre.
The mother was crying her eyes out and said the offender kept telling her to stop crying and just breathe.
‘The only thing I remember is hearing my daughter crying. “He was trying to get her to calm down and I was trying to get her to calm down,” she said.
“We were both crying and he said, ‘stop crying’ and I ended up feeling really bad, so we ended up stopping so I could throw up.”
Kieren said she and the knife switched seats and she was able to calm her baby and then he fell asleep.
When they arrived at the first store, Kieren was ordered to go in and buy the computers, and the attacker promised not to hurt his daughter while she was gone.
Her husband managed to catch up with her at the store by tracking her iPhone because she hadn’t answered any calls.
“I just remember yelling at my husband that I had a knife and I didn’t want him to get hurt,” Kieren said.
“My husband tried to save my daughter but couldn’t because the door was locked and she was in a car seat.”
The offender was last seen carrying a shopping bag containing two Apple MacBook Pro computers in their boxes and two more boxes under his arm.
But the nightmare didn’t end there: the killer left with Kieren and her baby still inside.
She threw her phone out the window, which alerted her husband and told him she had been in an accident.
The man then stopped at the Robert Booth Reserve and told Kieren he was free to go, while apologizing for ruining his night.
He fled into the night with the boxes of laptops and is still at large.
Friday, a week later, was the first time Kieren was able to leave his house.
“I told myself I could be a hermit for a week or two, but obviously the world doesn’t stop,” she said.
“I hope he feels bad because I don’t think he realizes the impact he has had on my life.
“It’s turned my life upside down.”
Victoria Police released photographs of a man they want to speak to about the incident.
He was wearing a gray hoodie, a fluoro green vest over the top of the hoodie, and black/gray pants with black sneakers.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.