A car thief who can’t drive stick
May 18, 2015, 6:50 AM | Updated: 10:02 am
Seattle detectives are searching for a car thief that failed to steal a Ford Mustang because he couldn't drive manual transmission. (AP)
(AP)
He pulled out his gun, threw the driver from the car, and could have sped away in a stolen Ford Mustang if not for one problem: the stick shift.
Seattle detectives believe the one thing that stood between an armed car thief and four-wheeled object of his desire was that the young man could not drive a manual transmission.
A woman called 9-1-1 from a Wendy’s restaurant in the 2500 block of Rainier Avenue South around 9:30 p.m. May 15 after a man put a gun to her head, pulled her out of her 1998 Ford Mustang, and tried to steal it.
The suspect — an African-American male in his late teens or early 20s, skinny wearing a black hooded sweatshirt — approached the woman as she sat in her car in the restaurant’s parking lot. He initially asked for directions before opening the car door and commanding the woman to get out. When she refused to comply, he pulled out a gun, pointed it at her head, grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the vehicle. The woman was thrown to the ground, but got up and ran inside the restaurant to call 9-1-1.
Police, however, found the car still in the parking lot when they arrived on the scene. Officers believe the suspect could not figure out how to use the manual transmission.
After failing to steal the car, the suspect may have left the crime scene in a gold-colored minivan. Seattle detectives are investigating the crime.
