MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A carjacking turned into a kidnapping when police said a man’s car was stolen with precious cargo inside.
The man’s wife was taken for a ride she wishes she could forget. The 33-year-old woman didn’t want to be identified but talked with WREG about what happened.
“I don’t feel safe,” she said. “Now, I have to watch my back everywhere I go.”
She stayed in the car as her husband went into a mini mart at Jackson Avenue and Manassas around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday. She said she was waiting for him to come back when, all of a sudden, a man with a gun came up and threw open the back door behind her seat.
“He put the gun to my head and said b**** don’t make a sound, (or) I’ll blow your head off,” she said.
She said he got in the car and got behind the wheel.
“I was trying to reach for the door to jump out of the car. He told me don’t move, (or) I’m going to blow your a** off,” the woman said.
Terrified, she said she did what he wanted and stayed in her seat. Then, she locked eyes with her husband, who was walking out of the store as the alleged thief drove away.
“I’m looking at him, and he’s looking at me, and I’m just helpless,” she said. “He couldn’t do nothing to help me.”
She said the man sped down the street and finally let her out about half a mile from the store at Manassas and Chelsea. She said he took her phone and made her leave all her belongings in the car.
He drove off, and she ran back to the mini mart, but her husband wasn’t there.
“He was in the car with the police looking for me,” she said.
She was reunited with him thanks to a concerned neighbor who showed up to the store, took her home and called her husband to tell him she was okay. He was relieved and so were her four young boys.
“That’s the only thing I was praying for. I just wanted to see my kids because I thought my life was over,” she said.
Police eventually found the car about five minutes from the store, but there was no sign of the bad guy. Investigators are still trying to find him.
“I’m praying they catch him,” the woman said. “Just prosecute him to the fullest extent.”
She said her car is still being checked for evidence and doesn’t know if any of her belongings were still inside when police found it.
