MEMPHIS, Tenn. – A mom pleaded with carjackers to let her get her three kids out of the car they were about to take from a Cordova gas station Thursday morning.
Damika Leaks was on empty when she pulled into the Circle K at the corner of North Germantown Parkway and Dexter.
She said her teenage daughter ran into the convenience store to get some snacks before school, and she began filling up her car at pump #6.
She said she had only pumped a few cents of gas into her 2013 Charger when two young men pulled up in a white Nissan Altima, pointed guns at her and told her to give up her car.
“I looked down and saw the gun and knew instantly what was about to happen,” said Leaks.
She said that is when she began begging the carjackers to allow her to get her 9-year-old son and 11-year-old twin daughters out of the backseat.
“I said, please just let me get my kids out of the car, and he said get ’em and hurry up,” she said. “To my kids, I’m saying get out, get out!”
Leaks said, unfortunately, there were no cameras near the pumps that might have captured the crime and helped the police. So, she decided to turn to Facebook for help.
A short time after posting pictures of her car, she got a call from a FedEx driver who thought he spotted her car in the middle of a Frayser Street.
“The call went from a phone call to Facetime, too is this your car? And it was my car,” said Leaks.
Police recovered the car on Carrolton and are now processing it for evidence.
Leaks thinks the carjackers just ran out of gas. She said she’s angry because they shattered her whole sense of security in just seconds.
“I’m definitely going to take different precautions now. I probably won’t go to the gas station with them again. I don’t know. I felt safe at 6:45 in the morning in the vicinity of my home,” Leaks said.
Leaks said after her carjacking, she learned that there were at least two similar incidents at the same gas station this week. Police have not confirmed that, but employees at the store said they knew about it.
If you know anything about the carjacking or suspects, call Crime Stoppers at (901)-528-CASH.