LAUREL, Md. — Traveling down the secluded Brock Bridge Road in Laurel a little after 1:00 in the morning, the motorist spotted someone crossing the road on crutches directly in his path.
“The vehicle then stops. The victim obviously doesn’t want to strike the individual,” said Justin Mulcahy of the Anne Arundel County Police Department, “At that point, two people apparently come out of the woods. One armed with some kind of long gun or shotgun. They demanded he get out of the vehicle and start tapping on the vehicle and ultimately forcefully remove him from the vehicle and steal his vehicle.”
WATCH: Carjackers use man on crutches as bait in Anne Arundel County heist
The idea that criminals would place one of their own in jeopardy just to set up a potential victim seemed so farfetched that detectives even interviewed the victim a second time with an interpreter just to make sure they hadn’t lost something in translation, since English wasn’t his first language.
“In all my years, I haven’t seen anything like this. It’s very much an anomaly, an outlier, very bizarre scenario,” added Mulcahy, “Our crime is down pretty much across the board this year. Carjackings as well. Don’t remember something like this.”
Police say they discovered the victim’s vehicle the following day where it had been abandoned just over the line in Prince George’s County where it also had been crashed.
At this point, police are checking with surrounding jurisdictions to see if the same carjackers may have used the same clutch ploy to pull off similar crimes in the region.
If you have any information, which could help detectives, you can call them at 410-222-4730.
