Video: Woman stops car theft by jumping on hood - East Idaho News
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Video: Woman stops car theft by jumping on hood

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MILWAUKEE — A Wauwatosa woman went from pumping gas one minute to fighting off car thieves the next.

Melissa Smith said when thieves tried to steal her car at the BP gas station near Milwaukee’s Third Ward on Tuesday, she fought back and jumped on the hood.

“I had the thought in my head. ‘Do I go after my purse or do I stop my car?’ And the price tag of my car flashed through my head,” Smith said.

At first she didn’t see the Cadillac pull up and the car thief crouch down and get behind the wheel of her car.

“(I) didn’t see him till I saw him get into my car. Someone was in my car. And my, ‘Oh, hell this isn’t happening to me today’ moment,” she said.

“Did he look at you?” WISN 12 News reporter Terry Sater asked.

“He looked at me, and he laughed at me, which really irritated me,” Smith said.

With the thief behind the wheel and Smith on the hood, you can see in the video that the thief slams on the brakes twice. Smith wasn’t budging.

“He was laughing while I was on my car, and he was trying to throw me off, so zero remorse,” she said.

She admitted she didn’t think about the danger of jumping on the hood until afterwards. The thief eventually gave up, jumped out of her car and took off.

“Which isn’t the smartest and safest thing. But it was my, I went with my instinct. Yeah,” Smith said.

This story first appeared on WISN, a fellow CNN affiliate. It is used here with permission.

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