You’re in the left lane of traffic going your way, with nothing but a yellow line separating you from opposite direction traffic. And you’re waiting at a red traffic light with at least one car ahead and one behind. A bad guy suddenly appears at your driver’s side window. What now?
Crank the steering wheel full-lock to the right = clockwise. In reverse, punch the gas and back up until you hit the car behind. As your nose swings out to the left, you may whack the bad guy.
Now switch to forward gear, crank full left = counter-clockwise steering, and pull forward through the empty space ahead and into the oncoming lanes then away from the scene of the crime. Perhaps crushing the would-be assailant at the same time.
Then eventually rejoin your own lanes and consider how & where to stop & call the police.
If the bad guy was trying to get in the passenger side the escape maneuver works the same; you just lose the bonus of crushing the bastard.
Do a search for “disable automatic door unlock (car make/model/year)”
For some cars you can do a sequence of things (ex: turn key to acc, turn lights on, step on brake pedal three times within ten seconds) to enable/disable “features”.
It was extra bad that this happened to this friend, as she is leery about Detroit as it is and only agreed to meet me at this bar if I would collect her from where she was parked and escort her into the bar. Thanks for blowing it for me, would-be-thief!
In the Spring of 1993 my ex-husband (then just a good friend of mine) was living in a suburb of Metropolitan Detroit. He was born there, and had just returned after being away for a few years. He went to the house of a friend who lived in the city of Detroit. The neighborhood was iffy, but by far not located in the worst area.
His friend was not home. He left and began to make his way back to a main artery to get back home when he approached a 4-way stop. He came upon some construction barrels that were blocking the road. About 4 or 5 in a row. He stopped (just for a few seconds) and contemplated the situation. He was about to throw it in reverse when his door flew open and he was yanked by force out of his van by two large men. I know what you are thinking - his door was not locked, and he had not put his seatbelt on yet. In the end, I don’t think it would’ve made much difference. They had a crowbar with them, and were ready and prepared to break the window.
My ex is not a large or tall man, but he’s strong and fast. At first he tried to fight them off - they were hell bent on beating the crap out of him - but then he saw that there were actually 5 guys. One was huge. One of the punches landed him on the ground, and then he saw the biggest guy coming towards him with brass-knuckles. He punched his face and broke his left zygomatic bone - that’s a cheekbone. At that point he knew what had to be done. He stood up and he fucking ran as fast as he could. He was in track in high school and full of adrenalin. Two tried to catch up to him, but gave up after one block. They yelled at him, “Yeah, you run you fucking honky. This is for Malice Green!!”
My ex watched from some bushes as they ransacked his van and unloaded and stole his tools, took his wallet from in between the seats and pretty much took anything of value.
The Black community was pissed about what happened to him. Perhaps rightfully so. I’ll keep my opinion to myself. These guys who beat up my ex were violent thugs and drug addicts, I’m sure. They were never caught. Not one of them. My ex flagged down a police car a few blocks away when he was fleeing on foot. He wanted to take him to where his van was. They said, “This is not our jurisdiction. We are taking you to the hospital.”
And that was that. He was left with a broken cheekbone that took a long time to heal and one eye lower than the other after two surgeries. He had cuts all over his head and was banged up big time. After that incident he had only one thing on his mind - getting the hell out of Detroit…again.
So, OP, it can and does happen. And sometimes when it does, it all goes down so fast
that you barely have time to react.
I guess my parents are drooling morons because they “allowed” themselves to be carjacked?
In 1991 or so, my dad was dropping my mom off at her car in a restaurant parking lot in a decent neighborhood in Queens. She got into her car, and suddenly a guy appeared at each of their windows pointing a gun at them. The one guy told my dad to get out of his car. Then they both got into my dad’s car and drove off, leaving my mom’s car and my shaken but unharmed parents.
The guys were eventually caught and were sent to jail. It turns out that they had perpetrated a long string of carjackings.
Carjackers know a hell of a lot more about doing a carjacking than you do about preventing one.
I don’t think the OP is realistic. I was carjacked in the early 70’s, in Detroit. I was doing a delivery for my dad, I was only 16, driving a severely overloaded Chevy PU, with a 3 on the tree tranny. I was taking about 2 tons of steel bars to a centerless grinding shop. The shop was in a dicey area, and they kept the front door locked. I stopped in front of the overhead door, started to get out of the truck, ran right into a guy with a pistol. He wanted my wallet and the keys. I threw both at him, and ran as fast as I could. I figured that he would be pissed off, I only had $3 in my wallet. He got in the truck, I watched from around the corner, he couldn’t drive it! he got about a block away, gave up, jumped out and ran. I got the truck back, and finished the delivery. I never called the cops, didn’t get a real good look at the guy, that gun got ALL my attention. The idiot never got it out of first gear.
He did get my money. He took the $3.
My dad never sent me back there. He told me not to tell mom…
A centerless grinder doesn’t use a center as a regular OD grinder will. It is a grinding process, which if done correctly can give you a very accurate, very round metal shaft. It uses a drive wheel, to spin the shaft, a grinding wheel to remove metal, and a work rest blade to orient and support the part.
Not having a center means not basically drilling one in the ends of the part, one reason that tubes are sometimes machined this way.
Unless someone were stealing it to use in another crime. That wouldn’t be done I. A carjacking, though, unless the criminal were either a complete moron or an utter sociopath.
Even if your used to a car with a manual transmission, each one is a little different and often it takes awhile to used to a new one.
I heard the reason thieves switched to carjacking was that shims and other methods to break into and steal cars became ineffective due to use of devices like the club, electronic keys, and theft deterrent systems and alarms so the only way left to steal a car was from a driver with the keys in it.
I was in town with my dad and got out to go into the butcher’s, dad stayed in the car. I was in a hurry and quickly got back in, the wrong car. An elderly person, sitting behind the wheel, have a sort of shocked/perplexed look on her face, I quickly mumbled ‘Sorry, wrong car’ and giggled, and got back into the correct car. At no point did anyone panic and I don’t think either of us thought ‘carjack’ at any point.
Good thing the OP wasn’t around so you didn’t hop into his car by mistake . You might have been shot, run over as he sped away, or taken for an involuntary Mr. Toad’s wild ride through town.
I did that once. The same color/make/model of vehicle had parked next to mine while I was inside the drugstore. I came out of the drugstore, unlocked my car with the key fob, hopped in the drivers seat, then thought, wait, when did the seat move up?
Then I realized there were two kids in the back seat. :eek:
The mom was talking to a friend nearby, and when I hopped out and apologized profusely, told me I could take the car if I took her kids, too. She and her friend both cracked up. Looking like a middle-class soccer/lacrosse mom has its benefits, I guess. No one thinks I’m a scary criminal.
Did something similar with a rental car once. Generic white Toyota in a grocery store parking lot. Came back out, stuck my key in the door (before remote fobs were common) and it wouldn’t turn. What the heck?!? Fumble fumble fumble. etc.
Looked around and saw a nearly identical car 1 row over. Which upon checking had my stuff in it. The key worked in that one.
I was glad I never met the owner of the first one. It might have been a difficult convo.
