Four men who apparently tried to steal a car off a Maplewood car lot in the 7200 block of Manchester had a few things go wrong, and much of it was caught on a witness’s dash cam, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Friday morning the men pulled onto the car lot and asked a salesman if they could look under the hood of a 2006 Pontiac Grand Prix. With the hood up and the engine running one of them pushed the salesman out of the way and another backed up the car. He drove east on Manchester while the others followed in another car.
As he raced away, the hood flew up and dangled to the side — the driver stopped and ripped it off. But soon the car broke down. The hood had cut the drive belt. The suspected accomplices picked him up and they all got away.
Much of the incident was recorded by a witness’s dash cam, who originally thought he was seeing someone with car trouble. When he saw the car being abandoned he called St. Louis City Police, who called Maplewood Police, because the car had been reported stolen.
The suspect who drove away in the car is described as a black man in his early 20s, 5-foot-7 and 150 pounds, who wore a black t-shirt, blue jean shorts and had dreadlocks tucked inside a sun visor.
See the full article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, including the witness’s video.