A ONE-year-old child was snatched from his mother after a car thief drove off with the sleeping youngster in a back seat. The incident happened in a Spanish holiday town Benalmadena in the Costa del Sol as the Irish woman was loading her shopping into the boot of her 4X4. As she was putting the shopping into the boot, a man jumped into the front seat and sped off through the town. However, a witness immediately rang the emergency services who set off in pursuit. The chase ended when the man drove into a cul-de-sac and was cornered. The child was returned to his distraught mother safe and well. The incident occurred at around 5pm on Saturday as the unnamed expat put her shopping into the boot of her Audi Q7 in the supermarket car park. She had put her little son into his car seat and is thought to have left the key in the ignition and the engine running so the air conditioning would kick in. The opportunist thief, a 21-year-old Romanian who was being quizzed by police yesterday, jumped into the vehicle and sped off. It was not clear if he knew a child was in the back when he took off. A police source said: "Fortunately the youngster was unharmed. "We reunited him with his mum, who was understandably in a state of total and utter panic. "It must have been a terrifying experience for her but luckily one with a happy ending." The suspect is expected to be handed over to an investigating magistrate shortly. The incident was the second of its kind in a week in the area. Last Monday a man attempted to seize a woman's car as she sat at traffic lights in Malaga with her child in the back. Two people in a nearby van jumped out and held the would-be robber until police arrived.
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