Carjackers leave man's car behind after discovering it has a manual transmission

[Seshmeister]

Carjackers leave man's car behind after discovering it has a manual transmission



Posted: Oct 20, 2016 12:15 AM GST
Updated: Oct 20, 2016 4:39 AM GST
By KMOV.com Staff

ST. LOUIS (KMOV.com) -- Dustin French has lived in the Benton Park neighborhood in south Saint Louis for five years.

He's from St. Charles but says he loves living in the city. After what happened last week he's glad to be alive and share words of warning to others.

“A car came up right behind sort of half parallel parked behind me. A passenger got out with a firearm, told me to get out of my car and empty my pockets,” French said.

Thursday night at about 11 p.m., French left a south side gas station and was heading to his home about a half mile away.

As he pulled up to the curb he noticed a car right behind him. That’s when the criminal approached him with a weapon.

“All I got out luckily were my keys and I said what do I do now. I was asking for orders,” French said. “‘He said get up and walk away. Face away and keep walking.”

He believes the gunman, who police say was late teens or early 20's, didn't steal his car because it was a stick.

French wrote about what happened on the social networking site Nextdoor. Some of the comments turned into a discussion about concealed carry, but he says he didn't want to spark a firearms discussion. Just warn people.

French says there were several things working against him that night.

He was alone. It was late at night. The street light by his place was burned out. He didn't notice he was being followed.

“I'm glad I didn’t panic or threaten violence or make any quick moves,” French said. “Kept my wits about me as best as I could. Asked thieves for instructions on what to do to prevent harm to myself”

He reported that burned out street light to the city. It's already been fixed. Police say the suspects' car was a silver Honda Accord. Anyone in the neighborhood who may have had a security camera operating that may have recorded any of the incident is asked to contact police.

Copyright 2016 KMOV (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.

[Nitro Express]

A lot of the younger people can't drive a stick. I actually picked up a decent Toyota for a good price for my daughter. The owner couldn't sell it because it was a stick shift and nobody wanted it so he dropped the price.

[FORD]

Embarrassed to say I never officially learned to drive a manual transmission. When you're 6' 6" and learning to drive in the 80s, most of the manual cars of that era were too small for me to drive anyway. First car I drove was a VW Rabbit, but it was auto. Probably just as well, because my left leg didn't have a lot of room to move around in that car, so a clutch might have been a problem.

I did manage to teach myself to drive a forklift though (which is not only manual transmission, but steers with the back wheels) so I'm sure a car would be easy enough now.... assuming I found one I could actually drive that had a manual.

[Nitro Express]

It doesn't take long to get driving a stick down. I learned just driving an old truck around on forest service roads. The only tricky part really is stopping on a steep hill and starting without rolling back. You have to use the friction zone of the clutch to hold you while you get going.

[cadaverdog]

I did manage to teach myself to drive a forklift though (which is not only manual transmission, but steers with the back wheels) so I'm sure a car would be easy enough now.... assuming I found one I could actually drive that had a manual.

A forklift and a car with a standard transmission are two different critters. Some forklifts have a clutch pedal just for depressing while picking up loads so you can raise the RPMs without having the forklift trying to move forward or backwards. You still use the clutch to shift from forward and reverse or high and low gear but you don't have to press the clutch in to stop without killing the engine like you do in a car or truck.
I taught myself how to drive a stick by stealing my brother's 66 GTO with a 389 and a four speed and taking it for a joy ride. I ended up with an exhibition of speed ticket the day after I got my driver's license. I was getting ready to walk to a friend's house about a mile away when I discovered my brother had left his keys in the ignition. My brother didn't find out about the incident until my dad absentmindedly mentioned it in front of him when I was in my mid forties.

[cadaverdog]

I was playing in the snow near Mountain High in Wrightwood Calif one winter and had started my car to warm it up before heading home. I left it running while I went back to grab some of the stuff we were playing in the snow with. About that time a car pulls up and stops with two guys in it. One of them gets out and gets inside my Chevelle. He puts the car into what he thinks is first gear and dumps the clutch. The car lurches backwards and gets stuck in a small ditch that was between the parking area and the picnic area. I almost caught him as he got out and ran to the other car but he was just out of reach. The Chevelle had a manual trans but it was a three speed, not a four speed. Reverse on a three speed is where first gear is on a four speed.

[Seshmeister]

75% of new cars here are still stick shift but it used to be much higher just 10 years ago.

I think that's because we had more bends and hills on our roads plus automatics used to be a lot less fuel efficient and our gas prices are way higher.

We also have to use our left hand on the stick because of the side of the road we (correctly) drive on.

All of this makes me grudgingly admire how well Tom Cruise did on Top Gear...