Police are hunting a robber terrorising women in Melbourne's western suburbs.
In the latest incident, a 28-year-old was sitting in the driver's seat of her car at the Burnside shopping centre car park on Friday evening when a man jumped into the passenger seat.
He ordered her at knifepoint to drive from the shopping centre on the corner of Westwood Drive and Ballarat Road about 7.15pm (AEDT).
He let her out at a service station on Boundary Road, Sunshine West, before driving off in her car, a black Honda Jazz, registration UIA 820.
The man is believed to have struck twice in the area before the latest incident.
Earlier on Friday a balaclava-clad man threatened a 23-year-old woman with a knife at an ATM at Bakery Square in Melton about 5pm (AEDT), police said.
She handed over cash before he ran to a car and drove towards Smith Street. Detective Sergeant Mark Guthrie said it was a brazen armed robbery in a busy shopping precinct.
"The woman is obviously shaken but thankfully unharmed," he said in a statement on Friday night.
Police said the car - a 1994 aqua Ford Falcon, registration NAO 200 - had been stolen at Melton West shopping centre on Thursday night.
Man reportedly drug addict
A drug addict had held a knife to a three-year-old's throat before stealing cash and the vehicle from her terrified mother.
The masked man had jumped into the car and threatened to hurt the daughter if the woman didn't hand over money.
The girl reportedly froze when the man climbed into the car.
"She was silent. She wouldn't talk. She wouldn't move. She just, nothing. Didn't cry," her mother, Carly, recalled on Friday, a day after the robbery.
The child became terrified hours later, after police took statements about the crime and teary family members got ready for bed. Looking up at her mum, she whispered: "The bad man's gonna come back."
For Carly, the attack stripped away her dignity as a parent.
"He took all my control away," she told reporters, wiping away tears through sobs.
"You're meant to be able to protect your kids and I couldn't."
Robber stole $20
The robber threatened her child with a 25-cm-long knife and forced Carly to hand over $20 she had in her pocket.
When she told him she didn't have any more money, he ordered her to drive home, where her partner was forced to hand over about $200 in cash. He made them drive off, then kept telling the pair he had a drug habit.
On an emotional roller-coaster, he threatened the family with the knife, nearly cried and finally calmed down, saying he wanted to be their friend.
He ordered them out at the Melton Waves leisure centre, then sped off.
Det Sgt Guthrie said the robbery was an "extremely desperate act".
"We're appealing for the offender, if he has any sort of conscience at all, to come forward and speak with us," he said.
The woman and the girl were not injured but remain shaken by the harrowing ordeal, which lasted about 10 minutes.
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