Video: Mother, teen daughter carjacked in their own driveway after handgun-toting crook apparently waited for them to exit Philly home early in morning
Surveillance video caught the moment a mother and her teenage daughter were carjacked in their own driveway after a handgun-toting culprit apparently waited for them to exit their northeast Philadelphia home early in the morning last week.
What are the details?
Investigators told WTXF-TV the victims were leaving their home in the 8900 block of Maxwell Place around 6 a.m. Sept. 19 when the carjacker ambushed them.
"It appears he was laying in wait," Captain John Ryan told the station. "He rode a bicycle up there, left the bicycle behind, we have that."
The clip shows the mother and daughter opening the doors of their white Hyundai Santa Fe SUV as the carjacker — dressed in a dark hoodie, dark pants, white shoes, white mask, and blue gloves — sneaks up from the far side of a vehicle parked next to the victims' SUV.
Image source: WPVI-TV video screenshot
The carjacker then runs around the front of the other vehicle with his gun drawn and heads toward the daughter, who's standing outside the passenger-side door of the Santa Fe.
Image source: WPVI-TV video screenshot
The mother and daughter begin screaming, and the daughter runs across the street as the carjacker momentarily chases after her before turning his attention to the mother, who's standing outside the Santa Fe's driver-side door.
It appears the mother drops her purse on the ground, and the carjacker grabs it before entering the vehicle and driving off:
Image source: WPVI-TV video screenshot
"No one was injured," Ryan added to WTXF. "They were just obviously stressed and afraid for their lives." Police told WPVI-TV the victims were not injured.
Here's video of the carjacking from two angles:
SUV recovered — but motorists must be vigilant
While police recovered the Santa Fe and examined it for fingerprints, WPVI reported that a 16-year-old girl was carjacked less than a half-hour after the mother and daughter were carjacked — and just a few blocks away along the 1900 block of Bluegrass Road. Investigators have not recovered the car stolen from the 16-year-old girl, the station said.
Officials told WPVI that carjackers are targeting more "suburban-style" areas of the city and that motorists must be vigilant.
"The suburban-style areas, they are areas being targeted because people get complacent," Philadelphia Police Inspector Charles Layton told WPVI. "They think, 'Well, this is my driveway, this isn't going to happen in my driveway.'"
Layton added to the station, "A lot of these [carjackings] are happening on their blocks, the blocks that people live. They think that they're safe there; they're complacent.
WPVI said its data journalism team found that early morning hours are a less likely time for carjackers to strike, with only 18% of carjackings have taken place in that time frame. The station reported that more than half of Philadelphia carjackings occur between 8 p.m. and 4 a.m.
Anything else?
Layton told WPVI the carjacker who stole the Santa Fe may have been tipped off that someone would soon come out of the house, as one waited near an already idling car.
"[The victim] starts her vehicle through her phone app," Layton explained to the station. "The victim's daughter comes out and is confronted by that suspect."