Police: Carjackers Arrested After They Couldn't Drive A Stick Shift
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (CBS Local) - Two carjackers in Tennessee were foiled when they ran into something completely unexpected in their victim's car: a manual transmission.
According to police in Nashville, a 15 and 17-year-old were arrested after they failed to steal cars from two separate women on Aug. 1. The teens allegedly attacked the first woman as she sat in her car. However, the driver continued to honk her horn and scream until the crooks ran off, police say.
Midtown Hills Precinct officers said that the would-be carjackers then approached another woman an hour later in a parking lot and stole her keys. "Both got inside the victim's vehicle. After a few seconds, they exited the car and fled on foot, apparently unable to drive a manual transmission," officials said in a press release.
Police caught the suspects a short time later and they were taken to Juvenile Court. Both were charged with attempted robbery, carjacking, theft of property, and attempted theft of a vehicle.
Aside from allegedly making some very poor choices, the two teens also apparently suffered from some really bad luck. A 2016 report found that only 18 percent of U.S. drivers know how to drive a manual car. Only about five percent of vehicles sold in the country that year had a stick shift; that's down from 25 percent of vehicles in 1987.
