KEY POINTS:
A man who stole a car then abandoned it after realising there was a sleeping toddler in the back seat has been arrested by police.
The car was stolen at 8pm on September 19 in Lower Hutt after the three-year-old's father left the engine running for less than a minute while he stopped at a house to pick up a friend.
The car and child, still sleeping, were found three hours later several kilometres away in Naenae.
Detective Sergeant Brent Murray said a 19-year-old man was arrested yesterday in Lower Hutt.
He appeared in Lower Hutt District Court charged with unlawfully taking a motor vehicle, theft and abandoning a child and was remanded in custody.
Relieved dad Shane Baxter said he gave his son a "massive" hug after the frantic three-hour search.
The boy, Alan, was pretty quiet when he was found and hadn't realised what had happened, he said.
"I was so scared and I am never going to let him out of my sight again," said Mr Baxter after the incident.
- NZPA
