GREENSBORO, N.C. — Greensboro Police said a man's 2014 Hyundai Santa Fe was carjacked at the Sheetz on New Garden Road and Bryan Boulevard. They say it happened around 7:40am as people were heading to work, luckily no one was hurt.
WFMY News 2's Nixon Norman spoke with the victim of the carjacking over the phone about the crazy situation.
The victim asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons as the thieves didn't only steal his car, but his registration, meaning they have personal information like his address.
He said he walked into the New Garden Sheetz Wednesday morning, as he often does before work, and left his car running.
He said he was looking out the glass at the gas station and saw someone hop in his car, "I have been going there for years, I stopped there to get something. This happened right in front of my house, I'm like it's not safe. I mean, even though, I feel like I live in a safe place… but it's just not safe."
He walked outside to his car and said, "bro, you're in the wrong car." The thief refused to get out, so the victim started to pull him out. He said once he started pulling him out, the thief started swinging at him, so, he started to swing back in self-defense.
The victim says a second thief made their way out of the car and also started to swing.
He said he started to defend himself against both of them until a third thief jumped out of another car, "I was fighting with two of them initially and then when I was fighting with those two, the other one jumped out of the car because he saw that his friends were taking a long time to steal my car then he jumped out with his gun and put his gun in my face."
At this point, the victim let the thieves have the car, "it happened so fast, when I saw the gun, I just froze because if someone is pulling a gun at you, I mean, I didn't have no choice but to be like, "fine, you can have it."
He then called police and filed a report. He is now working with police to get his car back.
He told WFMY News 2 this wasn't a carjacking situation where one, two or even three people were involved in the theft. He said he encountered six people involved in stealing his car, "there were six of them… three of them were outside and three of them were in the car."
Not only did he say he is sore from physically fighting two of them but he said he is in shock, "I never thought about being carjacked honestly, I mean I hear about it, see it all over, but I never though, I never thought it was gonna happen to me."
He also adds that he had some of his more important belongings in his pocket, meaning these thieves won't get far with his vehicle, "I had my keys, my wallet, everything in my hands as I was trying to defend myself. So, with my car, it has a push start, so as soon as they shut it off or whatever, they can’t turn it back on."
As for what's next, he said he's lucky to have the loved ones he does have, "not having a car is inconvenient but fortunately I have family and friends who are willing to loan me their car until I can get back my car, you know? Without my family and friends, I would be like jobless right now because I cannot drive back and forth to work."
This comes at a time where motor vehicle theft is up 14% this year in Greensboro, according to police. This time last year there were 1,169 car thefts compared to 1,336 this year in the city.
At this time, Greensboro Police continue to investigate.