Have you ever been in a position you thought you were about to be carjacked?

I think the regulars on the board know I drive a new BRZ with some mods that make it stand out. 

I'm going to try to keep this short. I was waiting at the window at Panera to get the fiance and I a quick lunch. A beat up Charger (no back bumper or front bumper, missing grill and headlights, smashed fender) blocks the exit, proceeds to slowly move, go into a different parking lot, block it again, pull up like they are going to leave. Then back up again, block the exit again, then start backing up. They parked in the lot behind me, once some other people showed up they left. 

Sure sounds like you were about to be. It's a big problem over on the Oakland side of the Bay Area and the pattern is almost exactly like what you describe.

When your Spidey Sense starts tingling, trust it...I've been held up at gunpoint and it's not an experience I ever hope to repeat.

I had a strange hooker open my unlocked passenger door and climb in while I was stopped at an intersection.

No, I didn't ask her to get in.

I don't miss Vancouver. 

At least it was a woman. 

Not in a car. 

Last year I went to Harbor Freight on my new motorcycle and as get on the bike to leave this guy comes over and starts some small talk. To make a long story short, he tells me to get off the bike, he had just gotten off of prison ... I had my helmet on and I dismount but I also unconsciously removed the key and walked off to Harbor Freight. 

Inside I told the cashier to call the cops and see the guy next to the bike dumbfounded. I really thought he was going to push it and drop it ... fortunately he left. By then I realized I took the key with me. 

Never in my life had anything stolen from me before. 

Its an expensive bike and it has full insurance, thinking back, I am lucky it worked out. I would've gladly let him have it and waited another year for a new bike paid by the insurance. 

In reply to Slippery :

My riding instructor told us to always back into spots in case you needed a quick getaway.

ShawnG said:

I had a strange hooker open my unlocked passenger door and climb in while I was stopped at an intersection.

No, I didn't ask her to get in.

I don't miss Vancouver. 

At least it was a woman. 

Interesting. I had one climb in my truck when I stopped to look at my phone in Whistler. I ended up driving her to Squamish where I presume she was doing some business. She was actually pretty good company so long as she stayed on her side of the truck.

I was asleep in a pull out one night with a 53 ft van load of Molson beer. I heard and felt someone trying to pry the lock off. I just started the truck put it in gear and drove off. When I stop down the road a ways one door was open. 

I had a coworker who had exactly the same thing happen, but he made the mistake of climbing out of his truck so he got a gun put to his head and was instructed to go back inside and get his wallet so he lost part of his load and his wallet as well.

bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) said:

ShawnG said:

I had a strange hooker open my unlocked passenger door and climb in while I was stopped at an intersection.

No, I didn't ask her to get in.

I don't miss Vancouver. 

At least it was a woman. 

Interesting. I had one climb in my truck when I stopped to look at my phone in Whistler. I ended up driving her to Squamish where I presume she was doing some business. She was actually pretty good company so long as she stayed on her side of the truck.

This one was amped up on something.

In reply to bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) :

My buddy was driving cab, waiting outside a bar.

Drunk comes out, in front of the cab, whips it out and starts relieving himself on the front of the cab.

Buddy gently rolls the car forward and bumps the drunk over. Drunk finishes on himself, rather than the cab.

Where to start. Hookers on trucks were a pretty regular thing when my dad worked out of Hunts Point in the Bronx. He usually would roll through red lights as long as there was no one coming.  He was delivering frozen food to some E36 M3ty areas at the time, and his company would often throw a sacrificial pallet on the trucks for crackheads. If they grabbed something while we were making a delivery it was going to be a couple cases of expired veggies or crushed waffles.  
 

The weirdest one I had was doing a voluntary repo in Brooklyn in the late nineties. After dinner Jodi and I went to pick up a car because I was a fun date like that.  A woman was surrendering a BMW, it was going to be in the street I just had to grab it.  Her boyfriend came out yelling because he didn't know what was going on, I calm him down and let him grab his stuff from the car and Jodi starts screaming and jumps out of the truck. There's a guy climbing into the cab. Me and BMW guy run up to the cab, the guys recognize each other and had a previous problem and end up beating each other silly on the sidewalk. The cops happen by and have us all face down on the sidewalk until they can sort out what happened and cart off the would be truck thief.  It was months before she would go on a call with me again. 

Once in L.A.

My wife [at the time] and I were in her Tercel at a stop sign downtown.  All of a sudden, two guys ran up to either side of the car and tried the handles.  Fortunately they were locked and my wife just gunned it to get away.

Strange feeling... especially since it was a Tercel.

I was driving what at the time was a pretty new Range Rover through a shady part of town at like 2am. I lived downtown so passed through shady spots to get home from anywhere. I was in the third lane from the right on a two way six lane road.  Three guys were standing on the sidewalk talking and they suddenly looked up at me, said something to each other, and started walking out into the street on an intercept course. I accelerated, held down the horn, and figured I'd call 911 from home if he worst happened. They got almost in front of me then realized I really really was not going to stop and so they stepped back out of my way. I do not think there was any chance of that being a friendly encounter. 

I was traveling from Lexington, KY to NYC on Memorial day weekend.
 

I stopped in a very rural interstate rest stop in Ohio. The bathrooms didn't even have full walls extending to the ceilings. As I pulled into my parking space, I noticed that the car on my right had the trunk lock broken out.

  Traffic was heavy, and it was the only empty space. I'm in my Dodge Dart, the other car is a virtually identical Plymouth Valiant. I noted that it had a single exhaust on the right side, so they were both six cylinder cars, which was quickly going to be relevant.

I went and emptied my bladder, and since I could see over the wall, I was able to see the driver of the adjacent car staring at me. When I got back to my car, I grabbed a sandwich out of the trunk, and saw that he had the door mirror turned so he could watch me.

I got back in the car while considering my next move. I figured I was pretty safe there, since the place was full of travelers. The other driver had adjusted the mirror so he could still watch me. The situation had progressed from, "that's weird," to "I've got to control what happens next. "

I've got my door open in case I need to exit the car quickly, but I'm pretending to be oblivious as I eat the sandwich. Next, some older man walks up, gets within the space between me and my open door, and starts some inane conversation about nothing, travel, the weather, etc. I don't know if the two of them are working together, but I decided I needed to act.

I was watching everything happening in the lot, and behind me I saw a motor home start slowly towards the entrance ramp to the highway.
 

I quickly told the guy on my left to back up, shut my door and started my car, going immediately into reverse and backing out of the space. The other driver had started his car simultaneously, so he obviously had been sitting with his hand on the key. His reverse lights were on, but he couldn't move, as I had him boxed in. I sat there watching the motorhome, then floored it, timing it to just beat the motorhome to the start of the entrance ramp, where the ramp narrowed to one lane. As I cleared the front of the motorhome, I could see the Valiant pull out, but get stuck behind the motorhome. 

I had a fresh long block in the dart, with a big block radiator. It was capable of running flat out without overheating, so that's what I did. By the time I saw the Valiant clear the motorhome, I was doing 95+ and he had no chance of catching me.

I backed down to about 85 after opening up a long gap, and held my speed until he was out of sight. About ten miles up the road, I exited onto another highway and ran about ten miles to the next exit.
 

I got off, crossed the overpass, and parked on the entrance ramp facing back the way I had come. I opened the trunk, unzipped the case on my shotgun, and left it in the trunk with the lid ajar while watching the oncoming traffic.

I sat there long enough to be sure that he wasn't coming, and then got back on the highway and went back onto my original route. Ten more miles down the road, I pass another rest stop, and there's the Valiant.
 

I got off at the next exit, called the highway patrol, and explained my experience.

That was the last of it until about 10 years ago when I happened to see a picture of this guy. He was living in that part of Ohio at the time. I can't ever be sure, but the moment I saw his picture, I was sure it was him.

ShawnG said:

I had a strange hooker open my unlocked passenger door and climb in while I was stopped at an intersection.

As opposed to a familiar hooker?  

These are some crazy stories. 

I’ve had a couple. First one was too fast to really bother me. My friend and I were in his 90s Century and were driving home from watching some obscure movie (Naqoyqatsi— terrible ending to the trilogy) at an obscure theater in a shady part of KC late at night. An acquaintance of mine was a patrolman around there years later and said he got in a fight *every single night*. Anyway, Sam stops at a timed light at an empty intersection and suddenly yells out as he guns it across the red. Turns out he’d glanced someone on foot sneaking up in his blind spot. 

My adrenaline story is right after I got the Z4 I’m driving home from night class in midtown (roughly the same area) with the top down. It’s not very busy on the highway. As I take my exit I notice a silver Mercedes sedan take the exit, too. I’m A) always open for a race and B) living along the line of okay/bad parts of town and C) paranoid, so I stay aware of the Mercedes.

Coming to my small side street I slow and use the turn signal and they do too. I decide to go straight instead and they do, too. I turn right at a light and they do, too. I turn left and they do, too. This time I kept it in 1st through the turn and mashed the gas to whip the tail around, screeching the tires all the way back around the corner and down the block. I’d just come off my first Track Night so I was ready to go.

They didn’t follow. 

I knew they’d seen where I was about to turn in the first place and I didn’t have a garage so I parked it in my neighbor’s that night and slept with one eye open.

Dunno what the heck that was all about. Probably nothing of course.

When I was 16 I was traveling on a moped.  A couple thugs pulled up along side me slowly. Guy in the back seat had a gun pointed at my head and started yelling at me to stop. "See that moped.. it's MINE!".  

I stopped. They pulled over and took off on my moped, but pistol whipped me first.  Which was kinda dumb because I was wearing a motorcycle helmet.  They broke the helmet, so I guess it was a good thing I had it on.

Police recovered the moped the next day. I don't ride mopeds any more. 

I was in the parking lot of our favorite park, leaning into the open side door of my minivan buckling my then very young children into their seats, when Tommy said "Mommy" and looked past me with very wide eyes. Turned around to see a guy standing there with a knife pointed at me. My first reaction was to become immediately and extremely pissed because it had been a frazzling morning and he was scaring the kids, so I said "What are YOU doing?" in an it's-naptime-and-this-bus-is-going-there-come-hell-or-high-water tone of voice. He seemed taken aback, lowered the knife, then raised it back up and said "I think you want to buy my knife." I said, "No. And you need to LEAVE." And he stepped back far enough for me to close the door and get into mine. Hit the locks and drove off.

Do not keep a mom from toddler quiet time. She needs that E36 M3.

Margie

Margie is badass. 

Bunch of us college kids hanging around. Kid who was renting the apartment asked "Some guy owes me money, who wants to go to a sketchy part of town?"

Like idiots, 3 of us volunteered because we were bored. Met up at a 7-11 in a sketchy part of town. 3 guys show up instead of 1. Was absolutely certain we were about to get carjacked. Main dude just throws a bundle of rubber-banded cash through the window and walks off. 

SV reX said:

Margie is badass. 

Only thing scarier than Florida Man is Florida Mom. 

stuart in mn said:

ShawnG said:

I had a strange hooker open my unlocked passenger door and climb in while I was stopped at an intersection.

As opposed to a familiar hooker?  

Those exist too. 

P3PPY said:

My adrenaline story is right after I got the Z4 I’m driving home from night class in midtown (roughly the same area) with the top down. It’s not very busy on the highway. As I take my exit I notice a silver Mercedes sedan take the exit, too. I’m A) always open for a race and B) living along the line of okay/bad parts of town and C) paranoid, so I stay aware of the Mercedes.

Coming to my small side street I slow and use the turn signal and they do too. I decide to go straight instead and they do, too. I turn right at a light and they do, too. I turn left and they do, too. This time I kept it in 1st through the turn and mashed the gas to whip the tail around, screeching the tires all the way back around the corner and down the block. I’d just come off my first Track Night so I was ready to go.

They didn’t follow. 

I knew they’d seen where I was about to turn in the first place and I didn’t have a garage so I parked it in my neighbor’s that night and slept with one eye open.

 

Dunno what the heck that was all about. Probably nothing of course.

About 40 years ago I had an episode where some guy was following me on the highway late at night.  I'd change lanes, speed up or slow down, and he stuck on my bumper.  I got to my exit and floored it; I knew that a short distance later there was a quick rise in the road, followed by a sudden dip, and then there was a quick turnoff to a side road.  I came over the rise and at the last instant went down the side road.  I saw the other guy spin out in my rear view mirror, and I went on home and parked in the garage.  I think they were just messing with me, but it sure did get my adrenaline going. 

Situational awareness is so important, might save your property, might save your life. 

Not a car jacking, but...

This is Chapter 17 of My Life... True story:

I was once driving southwest towards San Diego in the mid 80s in the middle of nowhere in who knows what western state around 1:30 am after bar closing. As I was exiting some interstate highway onto some 2 lane highway along the route, some car behind me screamed passed me on the exit followed by another car which passed both of us and then stopped somewhat sideways blocking the both of us on the narrow exit. The driver of the pursuing car got out and walked back to the pursued car and started kicking in the driver's door.

The guy would step way back and then punt the door, step way back and and then punt the door, and repeat at least 6 or 7 times. Being a hick from a farm state, we always carry shotguns in our vehicles just in case it's hunting season and after just watching "To Live and Die in LA" and all of the violence of the big city, I had my pump shotgun loaded with #5 shot, four in the magazine and one in the un-closed chamber leaning on the front seat floor and ready for action.

Being young and not knowing what exactly to do, I thought about letting off a warning shot over the guy's head but quickly figured that every cowboy out west had a rifle in their vehicle and not wanting to be outgunned, I instead dropped the clutch at 5 grand and flew by the guy at maybe 30+ mph just as he stepped back for another kick. I felt my rear 6" solid steel flare hit his leg as I drove around the moron, and as I was taking a left at the 2 lane highway intersection saw him taking chase after me and figured evidently I didn't break his leg. The car he was assaulting took a right and escaped while I floored my Volvo and left him in the dark of the night. 

Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:

Situational awareness is so important, might save your property, might save your life. 

This is huge. So many people navigate the world these days with their AirPods in, eyes glued to a phone, barely looking up to see what's around them even when they're strolling down the street in a big city like Chicago or San Francisco. That's not to say that you can't enjoy some music when you're out and about or that you have to be paranoid every waking moment, but you have to keep your wits about you. When you give someone that much of an opportunity to get the drop on you, it is almost always going to be too late by the time you realize what is happening.