JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A woman says she was right in front of her home in the Five Points neighborhood and had just finishing jumping her battery when her car was stolen in broad daylight.
The woman, who spoke to News4JAX on a condition of anonymity, said one man had a gun tucked in his waistband when he took her car. She said a second man took off in a separate vehicle. It happened Sunday around 4 p.m. on Dellwood Avenue near Margaret Street
“In the time it took me to get back into my house and set the jumper cables inside, I came back and a stranger was in the passenger seat that I yelled at who then got into the driver’s seat of my car and drove away,” she said.
She believes she was being watched. The stolen vehicle is a gray 2012 Honda CR-V with a neon bumper sticker on the back window. The woman said there was a reason why no one who saw what happened tried to stop the thief.
“When he walked in front of my car, he had a pistol tucked down the front of his jeans,” she said. “I was 5 to 10 feet away at this point and stopped. Myself, my roommate and neighbor were all out front and everybody didn’t do a thing for obvious reasons.”
The woman says another man who was with the thief drove a black Ford Fusion that followed her stolen car. Both vehicles were last seen traveling toward Stockton Street.
This all happened while the River City Pride festival was taking place just blocks away. There were many people in the area, and the woman said she thinks the men were taking advantage of that.
“Until I started screaming, no one knew anything was wrong,” she said.
According to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office’s crime mapping tool, which was adjusted to show reported crimes within a half-mile radius of where the woman’s car was taken, there have been three car thefts, seven petty thefts, three assaults with one involving a deadly weapon, an armed robbery, and 10 burglaries including five that involved a weapon reported within the past month.
Hannah Williams, who lives in the area, said her car was burglarized in that timeframe.
“My entire center console and dash were totally emptied out,” Williams said. “And you could tell someone had gone through my entire car.”
Anyone with information about the thefts has been urged to contact JSO.