Wet-behind-the-ears carjackers pistol-whip victim, take his keys — then run into a little problem when they try to drive away

A crew of would-be carjackers managed to pistol-whip their victim and take his keys Sunday night in Bethesda, Maryland but ran into a little problem when they tried to drive off in the vehicle.

Apparently, they couldn't drive stick and gave up on their caper, WTTG-TV reported.

What are the details?

Officers were called to the 7200 block of Wisconsin Avenue around 11:55 p.m. after a report of an attempted carjacking, the station said.

Authorities said the victim was in front of a business when three or four individuals approached him and demanded at gunpoint the keys to his vehicle, WTTG said.

Investigators said the suspects pistol-whipped the man, who ran back into the business, the station said, adding that the victim told police shots were fired, but investigators said no shell casings were found.

However, WTTG said the carjacking encountered a major roadblock when the suspects tried to drive away: they couldn't operate the SUV because it came equipped with a manual transmission.

With that, the suspects fled the scene in a different vehicle, the station said, adding that the victim is recovering from his injuries.

Anyone with information is asked to contact investigators, WTTG said.

Man pistol-whipped by would-be carjackers foiled by SUV with stick shift in Bethesda, police sayyoutu.be

Not the first time

Sunday's incident was far from the first time crooks tried and failed to carjack vehicles because they didn't know how to drive stick. Just a few for-instances:

• Last month, a 23-year-old armed carjacking suspect in San Antonio, Texas, ditched the car he tried to steal because he couldn't drive stick, got into a getaway car, and then actually fired at the victim of the attempted carjacking — who happened to be carrying a gun, too, and shot back at the crook, grazing his head. Soon the mother of the wounded suspect called 911 for her son, who was later hospitalized — and then booked for aggravated robbery after investigators put two and two together.
• Back in March, two would-be carjackers in Germantown, Maryland — a little over half an hour from the Bethesda incident — came away empty-handed after realizing they couldn't operate the manual transmission vehicle.
• In October 2021, an MMA-trained man fought back against hapless carjackers in Stafford, Virginia, who still managed to get in his vehicle but couldn't drive away because the crook behind the wheel didn't drive stick. The trio got back into the car they arrived in and were eventually arrested after a dangerous high-speed chase.

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