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."

Armed Philly carjacker pulls 59-year-old man from vehicle. But victim — an off-duty corrections officer — turns the tables, fires multiple times at crook.



An armed carjacker picked the wrong motorist to steal from Monday night in Philadelphia, as the victim — a 59-year-old off-duty corrections officer — opened fire at the bad guy, with bloody results.

What are the details?

The victim told responding officers he'd departed a friend's house along East Roosevelt Boulevard near Rising Sun Avenue just before 11 p.m. and entered his white Toyota Avalon sedan, Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small told WCAU-TV.

The victim was then pulled from his vehicle at gunpoint, Small noted to the station, adding that the victim "was carjacked."

The carjacker was wearing a surgical mask and hoodie, WPVI-TV reported.

But instincts apparently kicked in for the off-duty corrections officer, and he wasn't about to let the crook make off with his Avalon unscathed.

Indeed, as the carjacker got into the vehicle, the victim pulled out his own gun and opened fire at the carjacker with at least five shots, Small told WCAU.

The carjacker sped away north along Roosevelt Boulevard, Small added to WCAU.

Well, what do we have here?

However, less than a half hour later, police found the stolen car about a half-mile away along Bingham Street in the Feltonville neighborhood, investigators told WCAU.

Image source: WCAU-TV video screenshot

"That vehicle was found with five bullet holes in it and a lot of fresh blood inside the driver's seat and some on the center console," Small added to WCAU.

The bullets penetrated the driver's side window and door as well as the windshield, WPVI reported.

Image source: WCAU-TV video screenshot

Police confirmed to WCAU that the vehicle in question belongs to the corrections officer.

In addition, a man later showed up at a hospital with at least two gunshot wounds to his arms, Small told WCAU, adding that investigators were trying to confirm if the wounded man is the carjacker.

"There's a possibility that that 21-year-old shooting victim may be the individual that committed this robbery carjacking," Small noted to WPVI.

Police are checking DNA evidence to see if there's a match with the hospitalized individual, KYW-TV reported.

The corrections officer wasn't hurt, police told WCAU.