How to Get Car Jacked in Detroit

How to get car-jacked with my family was the highlight of my life. For two gruelling hours danger lingered taunting us with guns and violence.

Years ago I was at a Karaoke bar in Windsor with my daughter, her boyfriend, and my mother who happened to be visiting me from London. While I was sitting there waiting my turn to go on stage, a friend of mine came in. He took a seat near the back of the bar, and when I noticed him sitting there I waved him over.

Harry came over and sat with us and I introduced him to my mother, since he already knew my daughter and her boyfriend. He was a big man who was very kind, somewhat gullible and too naive.

Suddenly the person managing the bar that night called Harry to the phone. He came back some ten minutes later and told me that another mutual friend of ours was on the phone and wanted to speak to me. Surprised I took the call and discovered it was my friend who frequented the Windsor Casino with me and a few other friends of mine.

He told me he was in Detroit at the police station, he had been robbed, and would Harry and I come and pick him up and bring him to Canada. So I told him no problem Harry and I will leave right away. For some reason unknown to me, I did not tell him that Mary, Steve and my mother were with me.

Harry was driving a van at that time, and I sat in the front passenger seat with him. Mary, Steve and my mother were in the back. When we picked him up at the police station, I noticed that Damon was talking on the pay phone by the door, and for some reason I found this strange. He was holding some kind of briefcase and his shoes. The back passenger seats had no side windows, so it was a shock to Damon when he went to get in the back of the van and saw people sitting there.

As he entered the van and saw my family, he looked at me, "I didn't realize that you have other people with you." I gazed back at him and introduced him to my mother as he took his seat.

It was at this time that Damon told me that he wasn't going to Windsor, he wanted to be dropped off at a friend of his on the other side of town. I did not know at the time that the east side of Detroit was the worst part of town.

We drove for about 15 minutes then made a stop at a convenience store. Mary, Steve, Damon and I got out of the van and went inside to purchase some cold drinks. Curious thing, as Damon told me that he had been robbed, yet he was buying things. Thinking to myself, what kind of robbers left him with money. We purchased our drinks then left and got back into the van.

At this point I thought to myself, something isn't right about this, we need to drop him where he wants to go then get back home.

We drove on for about another ten minutes when Steve mentioned that a white car was following us. I looked back through the rear window to see a white car behind us. At least two people in the front and one in the back.

We approached the street where Damon wanted to be dropped off, when the white car pulled beside us. I leaned forward in my seat to see them aggressively trying to wave us over. Suddenly Harry opened his door and told them we don't want any trouble we are from Canada.

Damon insisted he knew these guys in the car and was trying to tell us to pull over. Everyone started yelling at Harry to shut the door and drive.

Harry slowly closed the door and drove on, telling us his windows didn't work that was why he opened his door.

Damon kept talking about how he knew those guys, and Steve yelled at him, 'you don't know those guys, and we are not letting you out of this van.'' Steve was from Detroit and was aware something was trying to go down.

We drove on for another 5 minutes when we arrived at the house Daemon wanted to be dropped off, but before he could get out of the van, the white car pulled beside us again.

This time the three men got out of the white car and I saw one of them come over to the van, open the driver's side and knock Harry over the head with a wheel locker and took the keys from the ignition. Harry slumped over towards me, at that point I opened my door and stepped out. There behind me was another robber. I looked at him and calmly asked him what was going on.

I saw him shrug his shoulders and say, " I dunno." By this time everyone was out of the van, and we all ran into the house. Damon was the last one to enter that house. We told the owner of the house what had happened. Mary and Steve looked around, noticing there was not much furniture. I was pretty nervous by then, seeing Harry get whacked in the head. We were all shaken up, but as Damon was the last one to enter the guy looked at him, and told us that we could not stay, we had to leave. He told us we could go wait in the car, for we had asked him to call the police.

Steve yelled at him, "we would be sitting ducks", we can't go back there. Steve told us that no house would open their doors to us, we had to find another store. We left that house and walked back down the street. My mother and I were behind Steve and Mary. My mother was praying the whole time. I looked nervously around the whole time we were walking until I spotted the store.

We entered the store and asked the proprietor to call the police as we had been carjacked. He told us he didn't want to get involved and we had to leave. By now, Mary was having an asthma attack, and was weak. I asked him if she could wait inside till the police came. He refused, and I lost it on him. I remember telling him how heartless, and inconsiderate he was. He had the nerve to say, “I'm not heartless.”

We stumbled back into the cold and kept walking, and once again my mother started praying. We looked ahead across to the other side of a main street to see a white car driving further away from us.

We came to the second store, entered and asked the worker to call the police. He called the police for us. The police came and took our statement, and told us he was going to go to the area and look and see if the keys could be found.

The police came back 20 minutes later with Harry's keys, they had been found in the snow near the van.

We talked among ourselves about the carjacking and realized that a miracle had taken place. I told them that when I came out of the van and saw one robber standing there, without a gun, that I had asked him what was going on, and that I saw him shrug his shoulders and say, "I dunno". He didn't try to stop me and I ran inside the house.

Mary and Steve looked at me and started laughing, and shrieking in laughter, "that is not what we heard him say," they were staring at me in amazement.

"We heard him say, empty your pockets, bitch".

I said,” no way, I saw him shrug, and when I asked him what was going on, he said, "I dunno.

This happened over ten years ago and to this day I still tell them and others how I saw the robber shrug and what he said to me. My family still maintains that is not what they heard.

The same time this car jacking went down, Mary who was in the back seat of the van was dreaming that we were in the middle of a car jacking, woke to find it happening.

My boyfriend back in Windsor, saw in a vision the whole thing go down, and he prayed that the Lord would keep us safe.

Did the Angels of God befuddle my ears and my mind? Did they keep me calm in the face of extreme danger?

I believe that God's angels had a huge part in keeping all of us calm that day, in keeping my mother praying. Because we called on God to help us, no one was hurt, and we live to tell the story.

Praise the Hope of Glory! Praise God!