Not all jacked cars are taken by force.
I’ll never know how close I came to being a carjacking victim. I had been home for ten minutes before I realized what had happened. I had been set up for a carjacking, and the events leading up to the potential car theft were both absurd and surreal. Living in a low-crime area, I had not considered my hometown a likely place for such a crime—I realize how naïve that sounds. That said, the first stage of the crime would not have been violent—more of a con, really—but I honestly don’t know what the end game was, and that’s unsettling. Here’s the story:
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Setup for a Carjacking
Leaving the health club around 9:15 PM, I made a last-minute decision to charge my electric test vehicle for a couple of minutes on the drive home. This to give the car-mover guys a little extra range to work with when they picked up the vehicle the next morning.
Not all carjackings begin with violence. We’ll never know how, exactly, this plan was going to play out.Fortunately for me, there is a level-3 “fast” charger located at the drug store less than a block from my house. The store’s main entrance is located at a corner of the building, with the charger situated all the way back on one side. As I futzed with the glitchy charger, I took note of a woman walking briskly towards me from the store entrance. She was holding a phone and appeared to be texting furiously during her approach. Roughly ten feet from the car she suddenly stopped, pivoted, and returned quickly to the store entrance.
I didn’t think much about the woman. She was older, and her quick nervous movements suggested to me she wasn’t EV curious—I often field electric-car questions while using a public charger—more likely a panhandler of some variety. I was frankly relieved by her retreat.
I charged the car for exactly 10 minutes—for a cost of $3.03—and was ready to head home when the woman reappeared. She rushed towards me from the front of the store yelling “excuse me” several times.
The women stopped just a few feet from where I was standing, and began telling me a confusing story that she started from somewhere in the middle of the logical narrative. This is, roughly, is what she told me:
- Her husband had dropped her off at the store, but hasn’t returned to pick her up.
- She had made a purchase, but had forgotten her purse, and couldn’t pay for it.
- She needed a ride home to pick up her purse.
- She lived just two blocks away.
- And, she would pay me for my trouble.
During her spiel, she never made eye contact, and never stopped looking at her phone. Also worth noting: she was wearing a purse over her shoulder.
I had already decided that I was not going to give her a ride, but because her story made little sense, I needed some clarification. I asked her where she lived. She pointed vaguely to the southeast. I asked what street she lived on, and, after a very-long pause, she responded “Carter Street.”
I looked at her for a while in silence, and she never looked up from her phone. After a moment, I said, “This feels like a bad idea. I’m sorry can’t help you.” Then I got into the car and drove home.
At home I looked up Carter Street. Turns out there is a Carter in my town, but it is nowhere near where the woman pointed. I told my wife the story, and we both realized I needed to inform the police.
Is Your Car Spying On You?
Thoughts:
- My would-be car thief may have bailed on her first attempt to communicate with me because she realized I was driving an electric vehicle, and that it likely needed some charging before it could be driven any distance.
- I would not have expected an electric vehicle to be a likely carjacking target, that said, I was driving a $65,000 Lexus, a tempting target, I imagine.
- Her furious texting may have been communication with an accomplice. I imagine a text along the lines of, “He’s big, but he looks old and tired. I don’t think he’s going to be much trouble.”
- I don’t know why a more violent method of stealing the car wasn’t employed. I’m glad it wasn’t, but this ride-home scam isn’t likely to hook too many suckers.
Regrets:
- I wish I had called the police sooner. It was fully 20 minutes after arriving home that I realized I needed to report the incident. The officer I spoke with asked excellent questions about the encounter, and seemed confident that I was, indeed, being set up.
- The police went to the store to investigate. Had I not delayed in calling, the likelihood of them encountering the women would have been greater. (Note: It’s possible the police did find the woman. I have not been in contact with police since I phoned in my story.)
Final Thought:
I wonder now how things would have played out had I given her a ride. Where would I have been directed to go? Was she carrying a gun? Did she have an accomplice? What’s clear is that she could have walked home and returned to the store during the ten minutes I was charging, if indeed she lived just two blocks away.
I would feel terrible if I learned this woman really needed help, but nothing she said made much sense. Someone with an unreliable husband to count on for transportation likely knows all about Uber—an obvious solution to her problem which was not employed.
I wish I could tell you I never considered helping this lady out. And I still feel a little guilty for assuming the worst here, but it’s very hard to assume otherwise. Perhaps my greatest failing was assuming for too long that living in a nice suburb brings with it immunity from the likes of carjacking.
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