Teens Attempt Carjackings, But Can't Drive A Stick Shift

Two Tennessee teens are behind bars after their failed attempts to steal two cars. 

The 15-year-old and 17-year-old approached the first victim about 6:20 p.m. Wednesday. Authorities said the woman was sitting in her car in a parking garage when the suspects ran up to her vehicle. The teens opened her passenger and driver side doors and told her to get out of the vehicle, according to police. 

As they attempted to pull her from the vehicle, she screamed and held down her car horn and the teens fled on foot, officers said.  

About one hour later investigators said the teens grabbed car keys out of the hand of a woman leaving a grocery store. They got inside the vehicle, but quickly exited and fled because neither was able to drive a manual transmission. 

Officers said they later spotted the teens who were taken into custody. The teens are each charged in Juvenile Court with attempted robbery/carjacking, theft of property, and attempted theft of a vehicle.               

A 2016 report found that only 18 percent of U.S. drivers know how to drive a manual car. Only about five percent of vehicles sold in the country that year had a stick shift; that’s down from 25 percent of vehicles in 1987.