Grandmother thwarts car theft
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
Score one for the good guys. Make that good grandmothers.
Yakima police said a would-be car thief picked the wrong Lexus to try to steal Tuesday morning, thwarted by one of the luxury sedan's basic safety features and then throttled by the car's plucky owner, a 67-year-old Selah woman.
According to police, the incident unfolded like this:
At 11:25 a.m., the woman and her 25-year-old granddaughter left the car idling outside the Greyhound depot in downtown Yakima while they stood in the shade awaiting a bus.
A young man saw his chance and hopped behind the wheel of the car, prompting the following exchange between the astonished car owner and the would-be thief:
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" exclaimed the woman, who asked not to be identified.
"I'm going bye-bye," the man replied.
The only problem was, he couldn't get the car in gear. Desperately flailing at the gear shift, the man began screaming "What's wrong with this car?" as the owner — all 5-foot-5 and 140 pounds of her — reached in the window and began choking the man, described by police as 6-foot-5 and 250 pounds.
Police theorized he wasn't putting his foot on the brake pedal, which releases the gear shift and is a basic safety feature of newer-model cars.
At any rate, the woman's granddaughter also got into the act, reaching in and grabbing at the flustered suspect, who finally decided to bail out and make a run for it. Before he could get away, the older woman grabbed the keys from his hands.
Police quickly nabbed him nearby. He was booked on suspicion of first-degree robbery and car theft.
Neither woman reported any serious injuries from the struggle, police said.
* Chris Bristol can be reached at 577-7748 or cbristol@yakimaherald.com.
I say that this would-be car thief is dimwitted but when did auto manufacturers start using break/shift interlocks? Apparently the early 1970s. I will stick to my dimwitted thief opinion.
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