Recent car-jacking story

This actually happened to some folks I know. I haven't spoken to them personally about this, but will give a few facts as I know them, and the outcome.

They are an older couple, driving a nice car and stopped at a convenience store in a nice part of town. The wife waited outside in the car, while the husband went inside the store. The wife did not lock the car doors after her husband left. While she's sitting in the passenger side, a strange female opens the drivers door, gets in and attempts to back out. The wife fights with the strange woman. At some point, the husband comes out of the store and the strange female points a gun at him, in the meantime the wife jumps out of her car. The strange woman left in the older couples car.

Several police agencies quickly got involved, chase begins, spike strips deployed, car totaled, strange woman in custody.

The strange woman- Apparently she had been driving a stolen vehicle and felt like it was time to ditch it for a different vehicle. I'm guessing the police found the vehicle she was driving at the convenience store and it was registered to someone in another city about an hour away. As it turns out the strange woman had previously been to a casino and had followed a lone elderly woman out of the casino and car jacked her and her car. The strange woman murdered the casino woman and took off in her car. It's now obvious the older couple were being carjacked by a desperate murderer.

What-if scenario #1- Let's say you're the husband coming out of the convenience store (armed IWB), and you see a strange woman in your drivers seat with your distressed wife inside and the strange woman is attempting to leave, armed and pointing a gun at you. I know there is not any one definitive answer to this because too many variables exist that we don't know about, but it would be a very tough situation to be in.

What-if scenario #2- Let's say you're the wife sitting in the passenger seat and you had your doors locked. You hear someone attempting to open the drivers side door handle and you look at each other at the same time and you see she has a gun pointed at you, yelling to unlock the door?

Outcome- Lesson learned for the older couple, she admits that she was "perfect prey". The wife baled, the strange woman left in their car, the couple was physically unharmed.

My wife is in the car being driven by a stranger pointing a gun at me: if there are no bystanders (or wife) behind my line of fire I shoot the driver. I've had more than one LEO, including our son, tell me that if you get in the car with a stranger at gun point you're dead.

Sounds like a clean shoot to me but then I've never been there either.

Unless we are entering or exiting the vehicle the car doors are always locked. I run into a store she locks the doors behind me immediately. If someone just walks up and starts trying to open the door use the car horn to draw attention. If the unknown contact presents a firearm promptly exit the vehicle and let them have it.

This unfortunate event also brings up situational awareness. Could have better situation awareness prevented putting his wife in that situation in the first place?

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Originally Posted by AOK

Unless we are entering or exiting the vehicle the car doors are always locked. I run into a store she locks the doors behind me immediately. If someone just walks up and starts trying to open the door use the car horn to draw attention. If the unknown contact presents a firearm promptly exit the vehicle and let them have it.

This unfortunate event also brings up situational awareness. Could have better situation awareness prevented putting his wife in that situation in the first place?

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Exactly. My wife and I are both elderly and we always help each other out with situational awareness: particularly when we are out for a walk in the forested areas near our home in Montana----although in that case we are looking out for four-legged creatures. When in a "big city" we do exactly as you mentioned about locking doors and using the horn.

Wife always fusses at me because I always take the keys with me, and lock the doors as I walk away.

First, I thought "All" old ladies in LA were armed!
Second, The wife in this story did well to get out of the car. The Ins will buy you a new one.
Had the car not been running, the BG or BW in this case would have been demanding that She give up the keys! Probably at gunpoint.

Car Jacking came about because we have made it harder to steal cars. By hardening the places they have to break, adding passive alarms, computers that are attached to alarms, etc... Its now easier to take them while its already running. DR

In response to PPKHEAT: Even though the strange woman has the drop on me, I will attempt to draw, move (trying to make sure to keep my wife out of the line of fire) and will empty the magazine at her head and chest and if I am still standing, will reload and hopefully remember to scan for accomplices.....

To SFCHEMIST: Welcome to the forum. There are a few of us from Montana here on the forum.

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Originally Posted by high pockets

Wife always fusses at me because I always take the keys with me, and lock the doors as I walk away.

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That's a pretty good idea. That way, you know the car is locked (I don't have to remind my wife to lock it when I leave) and the car can't be easily jacked because you have the keys.

My wife and I have discussed this scenario many times...she locks the doors when I leave her in the car...she carries, too.

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Originally Posted by pilgrimshooter

That's a pretty good idea. That way, you know the car is locked (I don't have to remind my wife to lock it when I leave) and the car can't be easily jacked because you have the keys.

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Well, there's the flip side. The armed strange woman (who had recently murdered somebody) demands the car keys, doesn't believe your wife when she says she doesn't have them/gets PO'd about the no keys situation and blows her away and flees on foot. You can't serve two life sentences, so what's another murder thrown onto the other one she committed?

What I do is this.. when my girlfriend and I stop somewhere, even if it's just a quick run-in-and-out-thing, she doesn't wait in the car. She comes into the store with me. While I'm waiting in line (assuming gas station/store with glass windows and/or doors) I'm monitoring my car and what's surrounding it and in the general area of it and will continue to do so as I head towards the exit. Now of course, this doesn't make "it" impossible to happen to me when I get to the car, but at least her or I won't be sitting ducks inside the car.

If I were see something dodgey and my spidey senses start tingling, I'll tell her to wait in the store until I go out and "clear" it. I'm not going to call the cops just because I see people near my car, thus why I'd go out first and assess the situation then signal her it's all good.

Somebody gets in my car with my wife, that means my kid is in the car too... strapped in her car seat. I will drag the intruder out by my teeth and die next to him/her in the street if I have to, but he/she is getting out of the car. As said above your chances of surviving a kidnapping are very low once you leave the scene... I feel STRONGLY that my chances are better for getting them out alive than leaving it up to a criminal's good nature.

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Originally Posted by ppkheat

They are an older couple, driving a nice car and stopped at a convenience store in a nice part of town. The wife waited outside in the car, while the husband went inside the store. The wife did not lock the car doors after her husband left. While she's sitting in the passenger side, a strange female opens the drivers door, gets in and attempts to back out. The wife fights with the strange woman. At some point, the husband comes out of the store and the strange female points a gun at him, in the meantime the wife jumps out of her car. The strange woman left in the older couples car.

What-if scenario #1- Let's say you're the husband coming out of the convenience store (armed IWB), and you see a strange woman in your drivers seat with your distressed wife inside and the strange woman is attempting to leave, armed and pointing a gun at you.

What-if scenario #2- Let's say you're the wife sitting in the passenger seat and you had your doors locked. You hear someone attempting to open the drivers side door handle and you look at each other at the same time and you see she has a gun pointed at you, yelling to unlock the door?

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This is a very interesting scenario. After thinking it over, I can't say with absolute certainty how I'd have reacted, because I think my husband and I would both be completely taken off guard by a woman acting this way - alone - in a nice part of town. It's just not the typical violent crime scenario (if there is such a thing).

#1: I think husband would draw and shoot after seeing someone pointing a gun at him, or me. However, I suspect he'd hesitate for a moment if it were a woman. He was "raised right" as we say in the south (with old fashioned values about respecting women) and I think those ingrained beliefs would give him pause.

#2: The smartest option for me would probably be to bail out the passenger door and run... but I think I'd have been reluctant to abandon the perceived safety of the locked vehicle. Upon seeing a gun pointed at me, I'd probably have instinctively drawn and shot. I can say without reservation that I would NOT have complied with the order to 'unlock the door!' No way. If for some reason I were not armed, I'd probably have bailed.

This is a thought provoking scenario. Thanks for posting it.