A South Florida disabled veteran is sharing his story after, he said, a carjacker held him at gunpoint in his own driveway and stole his SUV.
Speaking with 7News on Friday Robert Lovett said he had the scare of his life when a man held him at gunpoint, May 24.
“He could have shot me; he was nervous, he was trembling,” said Lovett. “He didn’t give a damn about nobody, so I figured out I was gonna die, too.”
According to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, the 66-year-old Army veteran was backing into his driveway along Southwest First Terrace in Deerfield Beach when the suspect, 29-year-old Rodney Montgomery Jr., approached his car armed with a gun.
“He said, ‘Get out of the [expletive] car. I’m going to kill you tonight,'” said Lovett. “I said, ‘What, man?’ He said, ‘Don’t look at me.’ He would never let me look at him.”
Detectives said Montgomery pressed the gun to Lovett’s face and told him to get out of the car.
“Took all the money out of my pockets — wallets, stuff — told me to lay on the ground, so I laid on the ground and he kept the pistol to my head. I kept trying to say, ‘Man, you ain’t got to do that,’ but he said, ‘Don’t look at me no more, or I’ll shoot you right in the head.’ He said it about a hundred times, man. That scared the hell out of me.”
Afraid for his life, Lovett said, he handed over hundreds of dollars in cash.
“He got about $700, so I had to pay somebody that day, so I got it at the ATM while I was at the gas station, and it’s gone,” he said.
Montgomery left the veteran on the road, then jumped into the victim’s SUV. It was recovered day later in Pompano Beach, and the suspect was arrested on Thursday.
“Scratched [my SUV] on the side and in the front, right here,” said Lovett.
“No one deserves this type of crime, let alone one of our veterans,” said BSO spokesperson Miranda Grossman, “so detectives were happy and relieved to be able to find the attacker.”
Lovett said he wasn’t ready to die and is grateful that he can tell his story.
“People is going killing these days. They don’t care, and they’re out there trying to get away with whatever but, you know, that’s bad,” he said. “I think, if they ask me for something, I ought to give it to them. I’m happy to be alive.”
Montgomery remains at the Broward County Jail on a no-bond hold. He has been charged with armed carjacking.
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