CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A man told Channel 9 he was less than an hour into his shift when his car was stolen while he was delivering a pizza Saturday afternoon in northeast Charlotte.
The man, who didn’t want to be identified, said a teenager walking down Chowning Tavern Lane ran to the running car and jumped in around 3 p.m.
Police have not made an arrest in what the victim said was a “setup.”
"It was definitely a set up all along,” he said. “It was a dead-end street. Nobody was home at the house."
The man said his car was taken while he was knocking on the door.
“I knocked on the door, nobody answered. It's a dead-end street,” the man said. “I went to knock a second time."
The pizza delivery driver said he yelled and attempted to stop the car theft to no avail.
"I thought if I yelled at him, it would startle him enough when I jumped in front of the car, but I saw he wasn't startled and he wasn't going to stop,” he said.
Not only was his car stolen, he was ticketed $50 for leaving his car running.
The man said his car was parked about 50 feet from the driveway and that police told him they have received similar complaints nearby.
"It was a bogus name,” he said. “The police ran a check, the name, and said that alias has been used quite a few times in the area."
Now, the man said he can’t work and his entire family is out of transportation.
"It's heartbreaking because the car is pretty much the center of everything for us,” his daughter said. “It’s what gets my son to his appointments, my husband to his appointments, and most importantly, it gets my dad to work."
Channel 9 spoke to the owner of the house where the delivery was set up to be made, and the homeowner said she was out of town the past two days and had no idea it happened.
Cox Media Group
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