THIS is the chilling moment a man steals a car with a two-month-old baby boy still inside, in front of his terrified mother.
Horrifying footage shows the baby’s mum step out of her bright red motor to pick up her other child from an after-school activity centre in São Paulo, Brazil.
She walks around the car and stands in front of it.
But mere seconds later, a man creeps into view and gets into the motor.
The mum’s back is turned.
Completely unaware that a stranger has got into her car with her baby, she chats on the pavement, waiting for her older child.
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As she turns towards the street with her seven-year-old daughter, the red car reverses.
The mum looks confused and seems to try and speak to the suspected thief.
She looks on, astonished, as he speeds away with her car and her baby.
CCTV shows the woman seeming to chase after the vehicle and plead with onlookers for help – some join the pursuit while others simply watch in horror.
A staff member ushers terrified children off the street and into the gates of the after-school activity centre.
The suspect tried to get away but didn’t make it far because of traffic, cops said.
He then abandoned the baby in the car and attempted to flee on foot.
But he slipped and fell – the ground was wet from heavy rain that morning.
Cops said he tried to get away one final time, but his escape was thwarted by members of the public who held him down, before police arrested the 26-year-old suspect at the scene.
The baby was recovered around a mile and a half away from the activity centre and reunited with his distraught mother.
He was taken to hospital for a check-up, but escaped the terrifying ordeal unscathed.
The baby’s mum, Maria Samara, said she stepped out of the car to help her daughter with her school bag.
Visibly emotional, she told G1: “I do this every day. But today, unfortunately, there was someone who shouldn’t have been there at that moment.
“Before I even turned my back to the car, he got in, and took my son with him.”