Child, 10, narrowly escapes as man carjacks vehicle in Ontario town

A 10-year-old child narrowly escaped a vehicle moments before a carjacker got behind the wheel and drove off north of the Greater Toronto Area on Monday afternoon.

Dufferin County Ontario Provincial Police said the Labour Day incident unfolded at about 12:15 p.m. in Orangeville when a man “tricked the victim to pull over to the side of the road, insinuating they had an issue with their tire.”

When the driver pulled over and stepped out of their car to look at the tire, the man “jumped into the driver’s seat preparing to take off,” police said in a news release issued Wednesday.

Seconds before the carjacker sped away in the vehicle, the 10-year-old child jumped out of the car to safety, police added.

Police arrested a man the following day. They also recovered an amount of cocaine and methamphetamine, cash and a prohibited weapon.

A subsequent search of an Orangeville home led to the seizure by police of clothes and stolen credit cards.

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Sukhjinder Rai, 36, of Orangeville, faces more than a dozen charges, including:

• theft over $5,000 of a motor vehicle
• operation while prohibited
• possession of cocaine and methamphetamine for the purpose of trafficking
• possession of proceeds of property obtained by crime under $5,000
• unauthorized possession of weapon
• use of credit card
• fail to comply with release and probation orders

He was held for a bail hearing in Orangeville court.