A Bentley driver fought off a trio of young bandits who tried to forcibly remove him from his pricey ride during a carjacking in New Jersey Friday — and it wasn’t the first time carjackers targeted the luxury car enthusiast.
The attempted theft happened in the parking lot of an Edison grocery store owned by the victim’s family and was captured in dramatic surveillance footage obtained by ABC 7.
The video shows three masked men — believed to be as young as teenagers — run up to the orange Bentley Bentayga as the driver opens his door.
The thieves then pummel him and try to pry him out of the vehicle until one grabs him by the leg and drags him out, the clip shows.
He freed himself from the trio and ran into his family’s store to call the police. Because he had his key fob in his pocket, they could not drive off with his pricey SUV.
The victim was unharmed, albeit shaken up by the ambush, his father Kaushik Patel told ABC 7.
Patel said he felt scared watching the surveillance footage of the attack but his son assured him that he was safe with “just minor scratches.”
However, the son wasn’t so lucky during a previous carjacking attempt by thieves. They successfully stole his Mercedes G-Class SUV, another high-priced vehicle.
Carjackings are on the rise in the area and are often committed by teenage boys who are employed by organized gangs to steal high-end cars because they face less severe repercussions as minors, the news station reported.
Edison Mayor Sam Joshi is ramping up patrols to combat the uptick.
“We have tripled and sometimes quadrupled the presence of the police force around the streets and patrolling,” he said, according to the station.
“We’ve also implemented over 80 license plate readers.”
But he said he can only do so much unless state laws around juvenile crime change.
“A juvenile or a criminal that commits a crime should not go back out on the streets the same week they are caught, it is completely unacceptable,” Joshi said.
Police are still searching for the three would-be carjackers involved in Friday’s assault.
