A woman’s 1998 Ford Mustang came through in the clutch Thursday night after an armed carjacker’s attempts to steal her car at gunpoint were foiled by the vehicle’s manual transmission.
The victim of the attempted carjacking had just pulled into the parking lot of a Wendy’s in the 2500 block of Rainier Avenue S. around 9:30 PM last night when a man approached her car and asked for directions.
The man opened the woman’s car door and told her to get out. When she refused, the suspect pulled out a handgun and pointed it at her head. The man then grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the car, sending her falling to the ground.
The victim ran into the restaurant to call 911, and when officers arrived they found the woman’s car was still in the parking lot. Officers believe the suspect may not have known how to operate the Mustang’s manual transmission.
A witness told police the suspect—described only as a black male in his late teens or early 20s, skinny, and wearing a black hooded sweatshirt—may have fled the scene in a gold minivan.
Robbery detectives are investigating the case.