Kids 'struggling with some fear' weeks after carjacking

Her young sons continuously check the locks on their doors, they've had to change their sleeping arrangements, and just sitting in a parked car can bring back bad memories.

But Toshia Noye says given what they've been through, the family is doing "amazing."

"I think our faith plays a big role in it," said the Cornwall, P.E.I. woman. "We feel like God really protected us in that time."

On March 11, Noye and her sons, aged seven, four and 18 months, were sitting in their SUV in the parking lot of the Champlain Mall in Dieppe, N.B., when she says a carjacker got in and tried to drive away. Noye frantically got her three boys out of the backseat before the man fled in their vehicle.

Investigation ongoing

Codiac RCMP say the vehicle has not been located, no arrests have been made, and the investigation is ongoing.

But almost four weeks after the ordeal, the family is still dealing with the trauma.

There's a lot of fear in them that we're working through and talking about but, honestly, for what they went through, they're doing amazing.— Toshia Noye

"My two older boys have been struggling with some fear," Noye said.

"We had bunk beds in their room and my oldest was afraid he couldn't get down the bunk bed in time if somebody were to come in their room, so he was afraid to sleep in his bed. So we had to separate the bunk beds.

"Even we took a drive one time and I had just kind of pulled over to the side of the road … and somebody had walked by and they were just instantly afraid that somebody was going to try and get in our vehicle again. So there's a lot of fear in them that we're working through and talking about but, honestly, for what they went through, they're doing amazing."

'He was just visibly irritated'

On that Sunday in Dieppe, Noye was sitting in the passenger seat while her husband went inside the mall to run a quick errand. About five minutes later a man approached the vehicle. Noye said she wasn't alarmed at first — she thought he must have mistaken them for someone else — but when he got in and shut the door she realized they could be in danger.

"I continuously kept saying, 'What are you doing, what are you doing,' and he wasn't responding to me," she said.

"At that point he turned the vehicle on and attempted to drive off with my boys and myself in the vehicle. I just reached over really quickly and I was able to shut the vehicle off and for the first time in that couple minutes he responded to me for the first time and he was just visibly irritated with me and just told me to get my hands off the keys."

She doesn't remember much about him after that, other than that he was slender, was wearing dark-rimmed glasses, looked like he had a shaved head under his black ball cap.

"I remember his hands very well because I was focused on trying to get the keys from him," she said.

Noye told him he could take the vehicle, but pleaded with him to let her boys out first.

"He kind of yelled at us to get out and at that point I yelled back to my older boys to get out as quickly as they could and I ran around the front of the the vehicle thinking if he tried to drive off he'd have to kind of hit me first, and I was able to unbuckle my youngest and pull him out before he drove out."

Support 'overwhelming'

Noye said insurance will help cover the cost of a new vehicle. There were a couple of iPads, a pair of prescription glasses, her husband's suit and the boy's jackets in the SUV, but nothing too sentimental that can't be replaced.

She said support from their friends, family and community has been "overwhelming." People, including strangers, have raised money, dropped off food, and even offered the use of a vehicle.

"In a situation like that, where something bad has happened, it's really refreshing to know there's so much good in our world. It's really helped us out, and helped us through a lot, the kindness that people have shown to us."

Noye said she has forgiven the man who stole her vehicle, but she still catches herself wondering, "what if?"

"I think a lot about how things could have been or how things could have turned out, but I try to stop myself when I start going down that road because thankfully that's not my story and thankfully it ended the way it did."

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