West Oak Lane woman ‘thankful nobody’s planning my funeral’ after Thursday morning carjacking [updated]

 The vehicle from which the woman jumped during a Thursday morning carjacking. (Photo courtesy of NBC10)

The vehicle from which the woman jumped during a Thursday morning carjacking. (Photo courtesy of NBC10)

A West Oak Lane woman said Thursday afternoon that’s she is lucky to be alive hours after an unknown man jumped in her car, demanded money and ordered her to drive to an unspecified location.

“He said ‘Shut up or I’ll shoot you,'” she told NewsWorks after walking into a local restaurant and telling friends that she was “robbed and almost raped” earlier in the day.

The carjacking, which came to an end when she jumped out of her car at Chew Avenue and Washington Lane around 8 a.m., also involved threats of sexual violence when the man couldn’t find any money in her purse.

“I’m just thankful that no one’s planning my funeral right now,” said the 31-year-old woman who didn’t want to be identified by name. “I want to go get a gun permit, buy a gun. I want to move. This is all just crazy. It’s scary. I’m worried that he’s going to come back unless they catch him.”

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A victim’s account

According to the woman, she was running in the rain from her house to her car near Ogontz Avenue around 7:50 a.m. when a man in his twenties jumped in the passenger side and brandished a black and chrome semiautomatic weapon.

He then started going through her purse and glove compartment looking for money, she said.

When he realized she didn’t have any money, he said, “I’m good for some sex” and ordered her to drive more, never saying where he wanted her to go.

She said she drove to the area of Chew Avenue and Wister Street since she knew there were police cameras near the shopping center. All the while, she was thinking about jumping out of the vehicle, which she did at Chew and Washington Lane.

“I just took my foot off the brake, jumped out of my car and ran to a SEPTA bus at the corner,” she said. “They let me in. Someone called 911.”

As she found safety, the unknown man ran southbound on Chew Avenue. According to police, the suspect is a black man in his twenties, and was wearing a black hoodie and blue jeans at the time.

“The whole thing is just scary. It happened in front of my house, on my block. My house is my sanctuary. This just disrupts my whole environment,” she said. “But, women need to know this is going on, that this happened.”

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