Security Footage Shows Armed Suspect Carjack Mom And Teen Daughter Outside Philadelphia Home
A gun-toting carjacker was seen on surveillance footage as he waited for a mother and teenage daughter to exit their northeast Philadelphia home last week. The mother was headed for work to drop off her 13-year-old daughter at school.
According to WTXF-TV, Investigators claimed that the frightening ambush occurred around 6 a.m. on Sept. 19, on the 8900 block of Maxwell Place, as the victims exited their home.
“It appears he was laying in wait,” Captain John Ryan said, WTXF-TV reports. “He rode a bicycle up there, left the bicycle behind, we have that,” he added.
Footage shows the carjacker hiding, then sneaking up on the mother and daughter from the far side of a vehicle parked next to their SUV as they opened the doors of their white Hyundai Santa Fe. The bandit, terrifyingly waving his gun, wearing a dark hoodie, dark pants, a white mask, white shoes and blue gloves, is seen running around the front of the other car, heading toward the panic-stricken daughter seen standing outside of the passenger side door of her mother’s SUV.
In fear for their lives, the mother and daughter started screaming, and the teenage daughter ran across the street. For a moment, the carjacker chases after the young girl; then, he quickly turns his focus on her mother, who looks to have dropped her purse on the ground. The carjacker drove off, but not without grabbing her purse first.
The victims were not injured and told authorities “they were just obviously stressed and afraid for their life.”
Police reported the SUV was recovered and examined for fingerprints, but motorists must remain watchful because carjackers are aiming more toward “suburban style” areas of the city. According to WPVI, a 16-year-old girl was carjacked less than 30 minutes later after the mother and daughter, just several blocks away, along the 1900 block of Bluegrass Road.
Authorities told WPVI that people should remain attentive because these areas of the city are being targeted due to people appearing more comfortable.
“The suburban-style areas, they are areas being targeted because people get complacent,” Police Inspector Charles Layton said. “they think, ‘Well, this is my driveway, this isn’t going to happen in my driveway.'”
According to Layton, the carjacker who stole the Santa Fe may have gotten information about the time the mother and daughter were set to exit the home as one waited near an already idling car. The victim, like many, starts her car through an app on her phone, continued Layton.
Layton told WPVI that the carjacker who stole the Santa Fe might have been tipped off that someone would soon come out of the house as one waited near an already idling car.
