LIVE VIDEO: WTLV Live Video_1    Watch

Carjackers foiled when they can't work Corvette's stick shift

9:44 PM, Jan 29, 2013   |    comments
  • Share
  • Print
  • - A A A +

(USA TODAY) -- An attempted carjacking in Florida speaks to the increasingly lost art of driving cars with a manual transmission: the would-be thieves couldn't figure out how to steal a Chevrolet Corvette.

Randolph Bean was sitting in his bright yellow Corvette when two men approached, one with a gun, outside the Orlando Regional Medical Center, reports.

Bean, who barely saw them coming, said they tried to force open the door. When it flung open, he was dragged out, Bean told the TV station and website.

Then, things started getting strange.

One of the thieves, pointing the gun at him, demanded to know how the car operates. They couldn't start it and Bean said he had to tell them repeatedly to push in the clutch. They still couldn't figure out how to drive it. Eventually, they ran off, leaving the car's keys behind but making off with Bean's wallet, phone and house keys.

"My first thought was I guess we don't have driver's ed in school anymore because no one knows how to drive a stick," Bean told MyFoxOrlando. "And my second thing was, 'don't shoot me because you can't start the car.' I'm trying to help you out here."

Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY

Most Watched Videos