Police are on the hunt for a car thief, who is now facing other charges following a terrifying incident involving a sleeping toddler at Chelsea.

The two-year-old’s father parked the Volkswagen SUV, unlocked, with the engine still running and the air-conditioning on, outside a grocery store on the Nepean Highway late on Sunday afternoon.

In the few minutes the man was inside the shop, the thief jumped in and drove off – with the boy in the back seat – before he was dumped at a nearby street.

“The child was distraught,” Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Grant Lewis told 3AW.

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The SUV was later seen being driven erratically on the Nepean Highway.