(HorizonPost.com) – A Bethesda man is recovering after being pistol-whipped by a group of car thieves who attempted to steal his Porsche only to be foiled by the stick shift, Fox5 in Washington reported.
Officers were called to Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda, Maryland Sunday night responding to a report of an attempted carjacking.
According to police, the victim was outside of a business when a group of three or four individuals approached him and, at gunpoint, demanded the keys to his Porsche SUV. The man surrendered his keys and was pistol-whipped by the thieves before running back into the business.
However, the car thieves failed to secure their prize since none of them was able to operate the Porche’s standard transmission. The thieves then fled the scene in a different vehicle.
Car thefts and carjackings in Washington DC and the surrounding area have skyrocketed in recent years.
In the District of Columbia alone, as of November 14, car thefts were up 98 percent over the previous year while carjackings more than doubled, increasing by 104 percent.
To address the unprecedented spike in vehicle thefts in Washington, the DC Metropolitan Police Department and Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration have launched a multi-pronged offensive that includes offering free digital tracking devices to city residents and dashboard cameras.
Police are handing out digital tracking tags like Apple AirTag to residents in areas with high incidents of car thefts that will allow residents to track the location of their vehicles in real time.
Additionally, the city is providing dashboard cameras to DC residents who work for rideshare companies like Lyft or Uber and food delivery drivers. The initiative is funded in part through a $500,000 investment from food delivery company DoorDash.
According to Metropolitan Police Sgt. Anthony Walsh, the distribution of digital tracking systems to city residents is aimed at helping the police to “build a case that holds up in court” so the city can get car thieves off the streets.
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