A mother was just trying to pump some gas when a hooded thief stole her SUV with her baby in the back seat.
It’s one of those nightmare scenarios that you think can only happen in the movies where a distraught mother desperately clings to a speeding car in order to save her baby. Only this happened in real life right in Washington DC.
On the morning of Tuesday, February 4th, a mother was just pumping gas at a local gas station. Her toddler was in the backseat, well behaved as mom put petrol into her white Mercedes SUV.
Perhaps it was the fact that her car was an expensive brand that caught the attention of the thief. We'll never know for certain, but what happened next is sure to send shivers up any mother's spine.
It was all caught on the gas station security cameras. A hooded figure can be seen running across the street crouched low so as to stay out of view of the woman pumping gas. Then, he gets into the driver's seat and tries to drive off. He's stopped as the pump is still in the gas tank, with the woman noticing and desperately trying to remove the pump in order to prevent a catastrophe.
But this only enables an even worse catastrophe: the thief starts to drive away with her car and her baby.
Elroy Jacobs witnessed the whole thing. “And he was pulling her," he said in an interview with WJLA. "She’s hollering, ‘Go get my baby, he got my baby.’"
As the thief drives away, the mother clings to the door for dear life, screaming for help. Jacobs follows the stolen Mercedes for half a block, witnessing the mother eventually lose her grip and fall to the street. However, her tenacity managed to convince the carjacker that his easy mark wasn't so easy after all. He ditches the car and then gets into another car, leaving the scene.
Police arrive shortly to find the stolen Mercedes with its gas cap still open. The mother's toddler is still in the back seat, safe and sound.
DC Police are still looking for the suspect.