Posted on 06/24/2014 8:08:44 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
Thieves attempt carjacking, but can’t get away in a stick shift
SEATTLE – A 70 year old woman is stopped by three young men with a gun right outside her Seattle home. They got her keys, but they didn’t get away with her car. That’s because when the would-be thieves got in Nancy Fredrickson’s car, they discovered it was a stick shift. None of them knew how to drive a manual, so they ended up ditching the car and running away.
Nancy Fredrickson had just returned home yesterday afternoon, after buying some things at a garage sale. She was getting her purchases out of her trunk three young men approached her and told her they wanted her car keys. She says at first she thought it was a joke.
“But he said again I want your car keys,” she says. “That’s when I saw the gun.”
Fredrickson threw her keys on the ground. Even though she’s got a black belt in karate, she says she was trained on when to fight and when not to. As a 70 year old woman, she knew she didn’t stand a chance against a gun.
“I’m glad I didn’t panic, I was proud of myself.”
It was the thieves who panicked, when they got into the KIA and discovered it was a stick shift.
“I could hear them trying. They put the keys in, they turned the lock, but they couldn’t figure out how to get it started.”
The three men gave up and took off running through a nearby parking lot. They were caught on surveillance video, but police haven’t been able to identify or catch them yet.
(Excerpt) Read more at q13fox.com ...
In Seattle these three mugs will be released before the arresting officer has finished his paperwork. Had she been armed they’d simply need a mortician.
An urbane gentleman (among other things) -
-drives a stick
-is able to tie a bow tie
-shaves with a brush and DE razor
lol..I blame it on old age!...I was driving “standard” before my 8th grade graduation....I just had a reflecting “senior moment!”...*W*
I must be older than you ... in my day we didn’t have 8th grade graduation, we just went form grade school to Jr. high to high school. The only graduation I ever experienced was HS.
My 1964 Plymouth Fury has the old Torqueflite push-button
Transmission. Maybe the dum-azzes could’ve figured that out.
Just for the fun of it every once in a while I’ll shave with my straight razor.
Dat be ode skoo.
Sure enough, they do.
Old U.S. buses, it looks like.
When I was a state copper working in Cook County I was in Chicago in the Greektown resturant area when my partner and I monitored a Chicago Police Dept flash message about a car jacking that had just occured in the area within the last few minutes.
Just moments after we made note of it, we heard cars honking at a late model import that was moving slowly in the left lane, jerking and stopping as other cars swerved around it. Since it matched the description of the suspect vehicle, we made a felony stop, detained three suspects who had two pistols in the car, and notified CPD Tactical officers to meet us at the scene.
These suspects were subsequently identified as the offenders in the car jacking, and the reason for the erratic driving that had captured our attention was the fact that the ringleader driver couldnt operate the 5 speed manual transmission in it very well. One of his accomplices was an 18 wheel truck driver who was entirely capable of driving it, but the boss said that he had always wanted to drive a stick shift and this would be his first chance, so he ordered his buddy to stand down and took the wheel himself.
We wouldnt catch so many of these clowns if so many werent so damn stupid.
LoL. Good story DMZ.
If criminals weren’t so stupid they could be brain surgeons.
-drives a stick
-is able to tie a bow tie
-shaves with a brush and DE razor
I've got all three covered. :^)
Heh heh, yet another reason to drive manual transmission cars.
Not to worry just bought a new 2015 Chevy dually I traded in a 06 dodge stick shift for it I wanted a stick but they don’t make them anymore the same with Ford and Dodge cant get a stick if you wanted, been driving stick all my life even that luxury is gone now plus my gas mileage savings driving is now made easy for the lame.
I’m glad I learned how to use manual transmission back in the day; most cars in Europe are manual transmission.
If you looked in at the 80-odd cars parked outside my apartment building, I’d guess that maybe no more than three or four of them have automatic transmissions. Even most of the higher-end cars (MBZ sedans) have manual transmission.
It’s as common as air over here. I can’t think of a single person I know among my current/former students and my friends and acquaintances who doesn’t know how to drive a stick.
At least in Norway it is required that you take your driving test in a stick shift. Not sure about other countries.
I got a 370Z stick for my 70th birthday. The kid at the car was was astounded.
Lived abroad, Spain, for 4 years. Wife needed an automatic, she will never drive a stick ... long story.
So I go down to the local used car lot and they tell me no chance on a used automatic, they are just not available; wasted two weeks looking. Then I go to the local Ford dealer and bite the bullet to order a new Focus with automatic. He spends a couple weeks and tells me no luck, automatics are for handicapped and very tough to get. Sorry about that.
So then I tell him to widen his search; I don’t care about color, # of doors or how far he has to ship it ... I just NEED an automatic; and I want it ASAP. A month with an unhappy wife feels like a couple years!
So a week later the car arrives, 4 doors, some kind of seafoam green color with just about every option. Wife loved it and I have to say, it was a fantastic car. Very fast and nimble even with the automatic. It gripped the road tighter the faster you went. Loved it.
And I sold it to the first person that looked at it, another guy who had to have an automatic for his wife. I knew exactly how he felt ... but I charged him top dollar anyway. His wife was thrilled.
“Wife needed an automatic, she will never drive a stick ... long story.”
Sometime back in the 1970s, I read in Reader’s Digest (!) the story of a woman on a camping trip with her husband. He had a heart attack and all she could do was watch him die because she couldn’t drive the standard-transmission truck. Oops.
I once sat at a stoplight through, ISTR, 5 or so green-amber-red cycles while someone in a car she OBVOUSLY didn’t know how to drive did the *lurch*, *stall*, *restart*, *lurch*, *stall*, *restart* routine. Traffic was held up in all 4 1/2 (it is a weird intersection) directions but people were remarkably patient - surprising at rush hour. It was in the days before youtube, but it would have made a great video...
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