Car stolen with baby inside: Mum ran for help, still racked with guilt

The mother of the 2-month-old who went missing in a stolen van is racked with guilt over the incident, telling the Herald she feels responsible but is happy her baby is safe.

Nola Pasikala was collecting her laundry when “not only two minutes” later she walked out to see her van speeding away.

Pasikala initially thought her older daughter was misbehaving, driving the van, but quickly realised it was being stolen in front of her eyes - with her baby inside.

“When I saw it driving away fast I knew it was not my daughter [driving] and I left the basket and ran inside for help,” she said.

“I [felt] very, very bad.

“I say to myself, ‘why, why [is this] happening? Why is this person doing this?’,” Pasikala said.

Pasikala said she couldn’t think straight as the incident unfolded, but ran and asked to use another customer’s phone to call police: “I said, ‘someone has come and stole my baby’.”

Security footage from the West Auckland laundromat shows the moment the van carrying the baby was stolen.

The horrifying theft happened at Blue 2 Laundromat on Roberts Rd, Te Atatū South, at 12.51pm yesterday.

Police have made no arrests yet but say they are following positive lines of inquiry.

“I feel sorry for my baby,” Pasikala said. “I couldn’t feel anything [when it happened], I just asked for help. I’m angry with myself [for leaving the keys inside].

“I’m feeling okay now. The police, they got the baby and he’s okay. I feel okay because the baby was alive. We stay[ed] home, we slept last night.

“I promise to myself today I can’t [leave my keys in the van] anymore.”

Video supplied to the Herald shows the white van parked near the footpath being driven off at high speed, within a second of a woman exiting the washing business holding two baskets full of clothes.

The woman rushes in the direction of the stolen vehicle, going around another parked car.

Within seconds, she re-enters the frame, holding no baskets and sprinting to the entrance of the laundromat.

The infant was in the back of the van.

A white van carrying a 2-month-old baby was stolen from outside Blue2 Laundromat in Te Atatu South, Auckland today. Photo / Google Maps

It was tracked by Eagle helicopter shortly after and found 1.3km away on Meadows Cres, a police spokesperson said.

The baby was taken to hospital for a precautionary check-up after being immediately reunited with its parents.

It was the second child lost in West Auckland this week.

Willow, 2, escaped out of an unlocked gate at the family’s home on Zodiac St, Henderson about 2pm on Sunday.

Hundreds of concerned West Auckland residents joined police Search and Rescue during a six-hour search for the girl.

It had been an agonising wait for Willow’s loved ones as the community searched for the missing child.

Willow’s mum understood a woman had found Willow on Universal Drive and taken her home to play with the woman’s grandchildren.

Akula Sharma is an Auckland-based reporter who joined the Herald in 2022. She has previously worked at the Gisborne Herald.