Would-be carjackers in New Jersey find they can't drive stick shift
PATERSON, N.J. -- Can you drive a car with manual transmission, a stick shift? These days most people can't.
A man from Paterson, New Jersey was in his car when two men put a gun to his head and tried to carjack his BMW.
There was just one problem; they couldn't get it into first gear.
"One guy, he come here and he open the door. I was sitting right here. They pointed a gun. I put my hands up," the victim said.
Just before midnight on New Year's Eve, the Patterson man was staring down the barrel of a gun with two thieves demanding not only cash but his car.
"He said, 'Oh don't move or they're going to kill me,' I take my wallet out everything that I have," the victim said.
Surveillance video from a nearby business captured the two suspects approaching the white BMW.
The victim says he forked over his wallet, watch, and chain on command, but the thieves also had their sights set on his ride.
"He comes here, he do like this, and they don't take the car because it's a stick and not that many people know how to drive stuff like that, that's why they don't take it," the victim said.
With neither suspect able drive a stick, the would-be carjacking quickly took a detour with the suspects fleeing on foot.
The victim says he wasn't able to get a good look at their faces since they were wearing hoods, but they both had Caribbean accents, with one short and heavy set, and the other tall and lanky.
Just grateful to be alive the victim says there's been a series of robberies in the area, and he's now ready to move elsewhere.
"I was thinking about moving before because I saw everything happens here, never happened to me," the victim said.
One of the suspects is described as 5'6" tall, and around 300 pounds.
The other suspect is around 6'0" tall, and 170 pounds. Both men were wearing dark pants and hoodies.
Police are asking anyone with information to give them a call.
