Family in financial turmoil after police rammed their car during a violent carjacking in Tweed Heads

A family’s life is turned upside down after police rammed their car in a violent carjacking, leaving them in financial straits while unable to transport their critically ill son to hospital.

Hugh and Alex Garnar’s white Hyundai Tucson was carjacked last February in a car park in Tweed Heads, NSW – just 5 miles from the Queensland border.

The vehicle was subsequently written off when Queensland Police rammed it in a desperate manhunt to stop the fleeing car thieves.

The couple’s nightmare began when Mr Garnar was leaving the gym and a grocery store in the Tweed Mall on Feb. 18 last year when he saw a police helicopter flying overhead.

Convicted carjackers Georgia Eve Masterson and Jonathan Michael Egan were tracked by the helicopter following a series of armed robberies in Queensland and NSW.

Mr. Garnar was confronted by Egan in the mall parking lot.

‘I looked down; A man came running to me wearing a mask and gloves and tried to stab me with a knife,” he said. A current situation.

He said he then froze before running away after his “adrenaline kicked in.”

The thugs brandishing a knife and gun climbed into his car – but police slammed into the vehicle to stop the pair on their escape.

“I knew it was a squad because they went off with vests and big guns and it was pretty terrifying,” Mr Garnar said.

The distraught father called his wife, who then rushed to him.

“This call was just my husband on the other end of the line yelling, it was really quite confrontational and then I saw my car – the only way we can get our son to the hospital – just gone,” Ms Garnar said coyly . tears.

Their son Mason has a life-threatening immune disorder and with the couple’s wrecked car there was no way to get him to his chemotherapy treatment at Queensland Children’s Hospital in Brisbane.

The boy even became very ill the day after the horror carjacking, with his parents having to wait 45 minutes for an ambulance.

Ms Garnar said she watched as her son “went unconscious in my arms” and regretted not having a car as she could have taken him to hospital much sooner.

The couple had no car insurance at the time due to housekeeping cuts and have struggled financially since the incident.

The pair said Queensland police at the Tweed Heads site had assured them their car would be returned to them.

Ms Garnar said officers told them not to worry as police insurance would cover the damage to the car.

But 16 months later, they are still without it.

Since then, they’ve been forced to borrow cars from friends to get Mason urgent medical treatment – before drawing money from their pensions to buy a new vehicle.

The ordeal has left the couple financially and emotionally crushed, with Ms Garnar admitting she was unsure if the family would recover.

And she added that the whole incident should never have happened as one of the perpetrators was out on bail.

She said if the justice system had done its job, the carjacking would never have happened.

Offenders Egan and Masterson were on a crime spree in the South East before police caught up with them in Tweed Heads.

They were arrested at the scene after the Garnar’s car was smashed as police tried to prevent their escape.

Both had long criminal histories and pleaded guilty to their most recent crimes, with Egan receiving a seven-year sentence with a four-year non-parole period.

Masterson was sentenced to six years in prison, three of which were not paroled.

Queensland Police told Daily Mail Australia it has offered to cover the cost of repairs to the vehicle.

“The victim has been made aware of this offer,” a QPS spokeswoman said.

“The QPS has paid the towing charges and is awaiting estimates for repairs from the victim, which will be processed upon receipt.”

It comes as some Queenslanders are pulling out all the stops to fight the state’s recent crime spree.

Early last month, locals in Mackay, central Queensland, threatened to take the law into their own hands after claiming police failed to act against suspected criminals in the town.

Anonymous signs were posted around Mackay on the state’s far north coast warning of the vigilante curfew — and calling for local fathers to join them in monitoring the “going unpunished” crimes.

The number of illegal entries has more than doubled year on year with 108 incidents in the area between January and April this year, compared to just 50 the year before.