PEMBROKE PINES, FLA. (WSVN) - A Pembroke Pines neighborhood is on edge after two people were violently carjacked in the span of a week.
Police are warning residents of the Windmill Lakes neighborhood to be cautious. One victim, named Mercedes, was so frightened that she did not want to go on camera.
Mercedes said she was parking her 2011 silver Hyundai Sonata when she was attacked, Dec. 14. “First they hit the window, but then he opened the door and then he went into my car and put the gun to my head,” she said. “In the meantime, there was another kid on my side that opened my door and another one in the back opened the backdoor on the passenger side, and he got in the car. He put the gun on my back.”
Mercedes said three people in total forced her out of her car.
“I thought that they were gonna start shooting at me, and when I saw the end part of my car, that’s when I started screaming,” she said.
Along with her car, the thieves got away with her purse, phone, work computer and Christmas gifts for her grandchildren.
“I haven’t been myself. I really do need counseling because I’m traumatized. I just moved in there 15 days ago, but the material things don’t mean anything,” Mercedes said. “What means [something] is my peace of mind, my safety. Now, I’m scared. Now, I don’t know how I’m gonna go back there and sleep or park.”
Mercedes said she may not ever go back to her home.
However, she is not alone in her fears. Just a day before, another woman was held at gunpoint. Thieves got away with her 2017 Toyota Corolla, purse and phone.
“They put one gun to this side and another gun to the other side, and they forced her on the floor,” said the victim’s neighbor Victor Castro through a translator. “They took her phone, car, purse, everything.”
To make matters worse, the victim said the guard gates at the community are not operational. “She’s afraid to leave her house, and we all feel the same. We are all scared,” said Castro.
If you have any information on these carjackings, call Pembroke Pines Police at 954-431-2200.
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