Police have released dramatic footage of a car being stolen with a blind person with dementia inside the vehicle.
David Stephenson, 51, was jailed last week for eight years and six months after being found guilty of kidnap, theft of a motor vehicle, dangerous driving and driving without a licence.
On 6 January, Greater Manchester police received a call from the daughter of an 89-year-old woman who told them “someone’s took my car and my mum”.
Police said she had left the engine running to keep the heating on in the car to keep her elderly mother warm for 10 minutes while she went to the shops.
Stephenson, of no fixed abode, was “not fazed by the fact a vulnerable elderly woman was in the passenger seat” and got into the car and drove off, police said.
In a video released by police last week, Stephenson can be seen driving on the wrong side of the road through the streets of Ashton-under-Lyne as he attempts to get away from pursuing officers.
Police eventually managed to bring the vehicle to a stop, detain Stephenson, and reunite the woman with her daughter.
GMP released the audio of an emotional emergency phone call to police from the daughter. Crying while on the phone, the woman told police: “I’ve gone to the shop to pick some slippers up for my mum and I’ve come back and my car’s gone with my mum.
“Someone’s took my car and my mum. She’s disabled and she’s blind and she’s got dementia.
“My mum’s in the car. Oh my god, what will they do with my mum?”
Ch Insp Matt Jackson said: “This must have been really terrifying for the woman who was in the passenger seat when the car got stolen.
“She is blind and has dementia, she wouldn’t have known what was going on – I can’t even begin to imagine what was going through her mind.
“I am proud of my officers, whose fast-thinking and ability to remain calm in any given situation meant we were able to bring the vehicle to a safe stop, and swiftly arrest Stephenson.
“Their response meant that the woman was safety reunited with her daughter. It could have ended very differently if we didn’t work the way we did to get her back safe.”
