It's been an issue in Minneapolis, and in most major cities around the U.S. Carjacking crimes are more common over the last several years, and police in those city continue to deal with armed robberies of people getting in, or already in their vehicles.
Stats and police statements are one thing. Then there is a first-person experience being carjacked which happened to a woman in Northeast Minneapolis. That is where Sadie was the victim Sunday. Talking to WCCO's Chad Hartman, Sadie says she has never once felt like living in Northeast would put her in a situation to be a victim of such a crime.
"I been a resident Northeast for five or six years," Sadie says. "Never once have I felt in danger or unsafe. I lot of my friends live there, I've had family live there. I love the neighborhood. It's great, and again why I'm out and about having an average Sunday. It just unfortunately felt like in the right place at the wrong time."
Sadie, who chose not to use her last name, told Hartman that what began as a typical Sunday running errands quickly turned.
"It was a pretty normal Sunday, just grabbing coffee and breakfast, was going to head back to my apartment," she says. "Heading back to my vehicle, was in my vehicle, started by my car, when I noticed a car drive down the opposite side of the street. It was full of individuals who turned and all made eye contact with me. In the span of 30 seconds, they had turned the car around, came up to my vehicle."
Explaining further, Sadie says once she saw they had a weapon, she was going to do whatever they said.
"I didn't open my door at this point," she explains. "I had put my window down just a little bit because I saw them talking to me. And they had asked me to get out of the car. Then I saw a weapon that one of them were holding. I proceeded to get out, throw my items on the ground, turned back away while they drove off with my vehicle."
She explained that it happened so fast, there's nothing she could have done.
"Something felt off just because all of the individuals in the vehicle had turned and looked at me. Some of them I could see were wearing masks or like half masks and I thought that was kind of unusual. You get that gut feeling in your stomach that something is off. That's when I tried to start my car and possibly leave but there wasn't much time to react."
One issue for Sadie was that she was parallel parked and it virtually trapped her after the other vehicle drove up next to her.
"They yelled at me to give them my items, give them the keys, my car, my phone, my purse, anything I had. Obviously I took that very seriously. All bets were off there. My life was more important in that moment."
Obviously, it's a scary situation. For Sadie, it left her in a helpless situation but fortunately she was in a spot where help came quickly.
"It didn't hit me until after," Sadie says. "I was left on the street. It was a busy street. People going to breakfast, people out and about. There were two girls walking towards me that I immediately stopped and they were lovely, stayed with me, helped me call the police, helped me call my family. They were consoling me. It really hits you in that moment. All your items are gone and you just don't realize just until that moment that your phone these days is like your lifeline. I had nothing. My purse, all my credit cards, all my things, you feel really vulnerable and defenseless."
She says police were there within five minutes, adding that she did her best to give police an accurate description. They did recover her car but it is currently in the city's impound lot.
"It's been jarring, this experience. Mixed emotions. Grateful I wasn't hurt, grateful that things are just things. They can be replaced. They're just things. I am privileged in a lot of ways but it definitely is a setback. Shaken up, but really just grateful that I'm OK and was able to walk away, get the help I needed."
Sadie adds if she can give one piece of advice, it is not to carry everything with you at one time, such as credit cards. But, she says even having pepper spray or a weapon wouldn't have helped against a larger group of people in that situation.
There have been a rash of robberies across the Twin Cities, especially over the weekend and even in broad daylight such as Sadie's experience. Police in Minneapolis and St. Paul say carjacking is down from the last couple of years, but it is still higher than pre-pandemic levels, reaching a high in 2021 in both communities.
Minneapolis Police say many of the suspects are juveniles and Chief Brian O'Hara says that is making it very difficult to hold kids and actually get them charged with crimes. There's no word on the age or identity of the suspects in Sadie's case at this time.