We would not advise that you try and stop a car thief (or any thief) for that matter, in the way that a twenty-seven-year-old Milwaukee-based woman did recently.
When Melissa Smith realised that her white Subaru Outback was about to be driven away, she jumped on the bonnet and screamed her head off until the thief finally ran off.
According to WISN, Melissa Smith was filling up her Outback at a BP station in Milwaukee on 24 May. She was putting in her own petrol (as they do in the US) and looking at her phone, when a black Cadillac pulled up in front of the Outback and stopped next to it near the front left corner (driver’s side).
When Smith turned her back to hang up the pump nozzle, a guy jumped out of the Caddy, and snuck into the Outback’s driver’s seat.
“I didn’t see him till I saw him get into my car. Or someone was in my car, and had my, ‘Oh, hell this isn’t happening to me today’ moment,” Smith told WISN.
Smith ran around the front of the SUV and then leaped on to the bonnet. She started shouting and pounding on the windshield. The thief tried a couple quick stops in an attempt to shake her off, but it didn’t work.
“He looked at me, and he laughed at me, which really irritated me,” Smith said. “He was laughing while I was on my car, and he was trying to throw me off, so zero remorse.”
Eventually the thief gave up and jumped back into the Caddy and the thieves sped away.
“Then I had to chase my car into the street and stop it before it hit somebody else,” Smith said.
Fortunately, Smith was unharmed in the incident, but her handbag, phone, wallet, and sunglasses were stolen. Milwaukee police are still looking for the suspects.