Story Archive

Electric Blues

A man was recharging his Nissan Leaf — an electric car — at a station in St. Louis, Mo., when several people walked up, and “I had three guns pointed at me,” the man said. “They said, ‘Give us your car and your money or we’ll shoot you.” He gave the three $40 and his cell phone, and the group jumped in the car to drive away. But couldn’t. “The car will not leave or go anywhere until it’s unplugged,” explained the man, who only wants to be identified as “Dan Dan The Driving Man.” Once unplugged, the car still wouldn’t go: he had the key fob tied onto his shoe. “When I step back, the car won’t go without me,” Dan Dan says. So the gunmen forced him to drive, but since the car hadn’t had a chance to charge yet, it still wouldn’t go anywhere. The carjackers fled on foot. “Turn yourself in. I forgive you,” Dan Dan said. “Sometimes you have to deal with the consequences that we suffer as the result of bad choices, but we can come back from that.” (MS/KTVI St. Louis) ...Charges will follow — for the suspects and the car.