On Thursday evening in the Antwerp district of Merksem, a man stole a car while a child was sleeping in the backseat, reports the local police.
On Bredabaan in Merksem, a man (39) stole a car in which a seven-year-old child was sleeping. A little further on, the man let the child go. After a chase, the police finally caught the perpetrator on the Deuzeldlaan in Schoten, just outside of Antwerp.
"The theft happened when a man stopped his car to buy some food," Wouter Bruyns of the Antwerp police said on VRT's local radio station. "His son was asleep in the backseat. In the meantime, someone else got behind the wheel and drove away."
The thief soon realised that there was a child asleep in the backseat, and stopped to let the child get out of the car. "He was probably just as shaken up as the father," said Bruyns.
A police patrol then noticed the car and went after it. After a short chase, the officers were able to pull the car over in Schoten and arrest the suspect, reports Belga News Agency. In the process, the suspect wounded another officer.
The suspect was already known to the police for various offences and was, among other things, under arrest for failing to comply with electronic surveillance.
