I don’t understand how carjacking is a thing. Out of all crimes I think carjacking is the hardest to be a victim of, right?
You in a car: 1
Person on foot: 0
A responsible adult locks their car doors. Even if not…in order to get carjacked, YOU HAVE TO LET A CREEPY PERSON APPROACH YOUR CAR.
Under what circumstances do people allow people walk super close to their cars? Especially at night, or in a dangerous or desolate area. Every time I see someone walking towards my car, I speed off. Unless it is a family looking lost or something, I do not let anyone approach my car.
Is there something I’m missing? How do people be come victims of this crime?
I’ve heard of that. When I’m in dicey neighborhoods, I make sure that no idiot runs into the back of me in the first place.
A carjacker would be bold enough to carjack you while there are other cars present??? Damn, that must be Detroit. And if someone hops out of their car and approaches mine, again, I’m speeding off.
But most people have eyes in front of their heads. You get to preview spots before you arrive. Criminals don’t appear out of the blue, I don’t see how it’s possible not to see someone loitering around before you stop.
Well, I don’t mean creepy in a literal sense. Creepy as in anyone who would approach a damn car. Just about anyone approaching a car is up to no good. They’re going to ask for some money, ask for a ride, solicit sex, …or carjack you.
I once was the second car waiting at a stop light when a car pulled up close behind me. I didn’t really think anything about it, after all, we were at a stop light and that’s what people do. But in the blink of an eye, a man was standing at my driver’s side window, pounding on the window and demanding I let him in! I wanted to floor it and go, but with his car behind me and another one in front of me, I couldn’t. My doors WERE locked, but he was pounding so hard on the window I thought he’d break it. I started doing the only thing I could think of - laying on the horn. Fortunately it caused the car in front of me to look back and see the problem. That driver quickly pulled over so that I could maneuver my car out of there.
I was doing everything right, but I was still really frightened.
I lived in New Orleans during the early and mid-90’s when it was the murder capital of the U.S. and also had more than its fair share of other violent crimes. To say that you had to be constantly aware of everything going on around you is an extreme understatement. I stumbled upon people being mugged at gunpoint in the backwaters of the French Quarter (let’s see just how fast this white boy can run), multiple friends were the victims of home invasions in the middle of the night, a professor was killed in the parking lot of the supermarket (that had an armed guard tower) while I was inside and a fellow student’s father was killed in a failed carjacking during a visit.
I never had anything too terrible happen to me except once (almost). I was stopped at a red light on St. Charles avenue about 3 am with no one else around. Before I could even comprehend what was happening a young and quite thuggish looking male was at my passenger door trying to open it presumably for a carjacking. He just appeared from a group of large bushes beside the road I suppose waiting for his chance. Thank goodness I had the door locked he couldn’t open it. I didn’t stick around to interview him about his motives but they were obviously on the not good side. I ran the light and got out of there as fast as I could. I may have been killed that night if I had forgotten to lock the passenger door. Those things can happen much quicker than you think especially if the would-be carjacker is armed and all it takes is a small window of opportunity.
My father was kidnapped/carjacked as a teenager in the late '60’s. He went into a convenience store, came out and a man rose up from the back seat with a knife just like in the horror movies. To make a long-story short, it was a case of mistaken identity and the man planned to execute my father and the man’s fiance together that night. Plans went wrong and they ended up driving around looking for her all night. Finally, my father figured he had nothing to lose and beat the guy senseless as soon as he let his guard down. He went to prison for life for multiple felonies and is probably still there.
Do you often tend to “speed off” through red lights and such just because there’s a pedestrian somewhere in your vicinity?
If someone is wielding a gun, a car door (or especially a window) is not going to be a great obstacle for a bullet. Now, you could still “speed off” and just hope they don’t fire, and in all probability they wouldn’t. But some people understandably wouldn’t want to take that risk.
Most of the time, I don’t even have a roof on my car. Locking my doors doesn’t help much.
I am careful to pay attention to people walking around when I’m stopped at traffic lights, but there isn’t much I can do in some situations. If I know I’m going to be going through a bad neighborhood, I keep the top up.
Someone runs up to your car and smashes the window and shoves a gun in your face, demanding your car. I like to think I would keep my wits about me too but who knows?
For carjackings? If the carjacker’s armed, I can’t imagine you’d be able to reach for your weapon before the guy who already has a weapon trained on you attacks you instead. Even if he’s not, the whole point of the exercise is the element of surprise, and I suppose YOU personally would be quick enough and calm enough to go for your gun first, but would most?