Colorado’s Boulder Police Department alleged Monday that a car theft had been thwarted because the thief did not know how to drive with a stick shift.
Police tweeted that they were alerted to the incident by “a report” that “a truck had crashed into a fire hydrant” and arrested a female suspect after speaking to witnesses. (RELATED: Tow Truck Driver Allegedly Targets Couple To Steal Their Moving Car In Broad Daylight)
Stick Shift FTW
Not a standard recommendation for car theft prevention, but this past Friday a stick shift kept a thief from getting far in a stolen car.
It was just after 4:30 p.m. when officers were called to Airport Boulevard for a report of a truck that had crashed into a… pic.twitter.com/1UTBGwlSem
— Boulder Police Dept. (@boulderpolice) May 6, 2024
Boulder police allege that the female suspect had just been released from jail for stealing a car and that she saw the truck with the keys inside it and decided to steal it. “When she couldn’t figure out how to drive the truck’s manual transmission, she jumped out and tried to leave the area on foot. The truck then crashed into the hydrant,” police tweeted. No one was injured in the attempted heist and the truck was given back to its rightful owner, police say.
The suspect was charged with “second degree motor vehicle theft/enhanced circumstance, careless driving, driving without a valid license and duty upon striking unattended vehicle or other property,” police tweeted.
Auto theft has increased across Colorado by 56 percent from 2019 to 2024, the Denver Post reported. Nearly 30,000 vehicles were stolen in 2023 alone, the outlet reported. Boulder is a city in Colorado inhabited by over 105,000 persons, according to a 2022 U.S. census.