A mother says a man armed with a knife told her to "just stop crying" as he forced her to drive and buy laptops in Melbourne's south-east while her six-month-old daughter sat in the back seat.
He remained in the car with her child while she was forced to make the purchases.
This is the bit I don’t understand. How could he know she wouldn’t involve police the moment he let her out of sight? I know there’s the threat to the baby, but the risk he took there is unbelievable.
We are not talking about a criminal mastermind here.
It is was a high-risk, low return heist. She could have called the police, liberated her baby, had the stores brick the laptops on purpose and he would have gotten nothing.
The way it was, he (as so far) managed to get away with hot, easily traceable goods and she has suffered a financial loss and serious trauma. No one will win in the long term.
If she involved the police, they would need to be discrete. Flashing lights and uniformed cops end with her child dead, so presumably they’d need plain clothes officers who I assume are not readily available for emergency response. I doubt vicpol would risk a murdered baby due to their incompetence, so it would be a slower response.
It takes what, 10 or 15 minutes to buy a laptop? I’m guessing that even if she called the cops, chances are he’s long gone before they turn up.
This is the bit I don’t understand. How could he know she wouldn’t involve police the moment he let her out of sight? I know there’s the threat to the baby, but the risk he took there is unbelievable.
We are not talking about a criminal mastermind here.
It is was a high-risk, low return heist. She could have called the police, liberated her baby, had the stores brick the laptops on purpose and he would have gotten nothing.
The way it was, he (as so far) managed to get away with hot, easily traceable goods and she has suffered a financial loss and serious trauma. No one will win in the long term.
If she involved the police, they would need to be discrete. Flashing lights and uniformed cops end with her child dead, so presumably they’d need plain clothes officers who I assume are not readily available for emergency response. I doubt vicpol would risk a murdered baby due to their incompetence, so it would be a slower response.
It takes what, 10 or 15 minutes to buy a laptop? I’m guessing that even if she called the cops, chances are he’s long gone before they turn up.