Melbourne grandmother Mary Tetradi says she’s forgiven the man who allegedly abducted her at knifepoint during a carjacking on Tuesday afternoon.
The 74-year-old was loading groceries into her car at Frankston’s Bayside shopping centre when a man climbed into the vehicle’s passenger seat around 4:30pm.
He allegedly brandished a knife as he demanded she drive him to a nearby hospital, before dropping her off unharmed at a service station in Frankston North after about half an hour.
“He was very annoyed I was not upset. He said ‘aren’t you scared?’. I said you asked me to take you to hospital and I will take you to hospital,” Tetradi recalled in an interview with Channel 9.
After being abandoned by her abductor, left her without her phone, handbag or keys, Ms Tetradi walked to a nearby mechanic to call for help.
Following a large-scale police chase involving dogs and a helicopter, a 30-year-old man was arrested in relation to the incident just after midnight on Wednesday.
The stolen car was found around 6:25pm left crashed into a pole on Frankston-Dandenong Road. Witnesses told police the driver had fled the scene.
The same man allegedly threatened another motorist at knifepoint before stealing his white Toyota Camry sedan on Belvedere Road in Seaford around 7:30pm.
Police began their pursuit around 11pm when officers spotted the vehicle, which failed to stop for them.
Tracked by a helicopter, it was brought to a stop just after midnight by a tire deflation device laid by police on Parer Street.
The Carrum Downs man allegedly ran from the vehicle before being apprehended by the dog squad.
He was taken to hospital under guard and later charged with a string of offences including aggravated carjacking, kidnapping, armed robbery, theft of a motor vehicle, unlicensed driving, assault and reckless conduct endangering serious injury.
He has been remanded to appear before Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on April 20.