KEY POINTS:
Two men now face criminal charges following police investigations into a car that was stolen and then abandoned with a sleeping toddler in the back seat.
Seventeen-year-old Henry Tauti appeared in Lower Hutt District Court today facing charges of kidnapping, abandoning a child, theft and unlawfully taking a motor vehicle. He was arrested in Lower Hutt earlier today.
Nineteen-year-old Evani Kamoto was also today charged with unlawfully taking a motor vehicle, theft and abandoning a child today. He was arrested yesterday.
No pleas were entered and both were remanded in custody until Thursday.
The charges stem from an incident when a car with a toddler inside was stolen at 8pm on September 19 in Lower Hutt. 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.
A 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
