Motorist Carjacked At Gary Train Station
(CBS) – You better pick your parking spot carefully. That's the message from police about the Miller train station in northwest Indiana.
CBS 2's Pamela Jones reports on one man who learned that lesson the hard way.
Crumpled twisted metal is what's left of this Mustang. Police say a carjacking suspect on the run crashed it.
"For a very brief, brief second, the very first time when he told me to get out of the car, I thought can I get away?" the victim, who asked that his identity be concealed, says.
He was carjacked at gunpoint Wednesday morning while parked and waiting for his girlfriend to catch a train.
It happened at the Miller South Shore station in Gary, Ind.
The victim was sitting in his maroon mustang. Just after 7 a.m., he says the suspect walked up to the driver's side window and pointed a gun inside.
"He told me to get out of the car. I kind of froze for a second," he says.
He and his girlfriend got out. The suspect took off; Gary police chased him.
The car slammed into a tree at 3rd Avenue and Burr Street, but the guy behind the wheel had vanished.
Police for the commuter train line say the station has working cameras, but not on the extreme west side of the area where the victim was parked.
"Always, you have to be conscious of your surroundings," says Robert Byrd of the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District police.
NICTD police offer these tips:
--Try to avoid sitting in your vehicle for an extended period of time because it can make you a target.
--There's always safety in numbers; try to move with other commuters on the platform.
This happened in broad daylight, and other passengers didn't even see it.
