Me and a friend (about my size) were driving down an old dirt potholed road, far outside of town, looking for a shop that had the car parts I needed. We have never been that far out of town and never really go there. As we hit a dead end we had to u-turn, and coming back, a man jumped out in front of us, aiming a revolver at us. He was about 10 yards ahead of us, we were traveling about about 5mph because of the road conditions.
Given that it was a dark skinned Papua New Guinean, with a black gun, it took about 2 seconds for me to realize it was a gun. Which, in moments like this, 2 seconds isn't a long time, but your perception of things seems to be heighten and time slows down for a few seconds. The driver, a good buddy of mine, is more experienced with guns than I, which is why we think it was a revolver.
Anyway, he was shaking the gun and aiming it at us, 2 seconds into realizing what was going on, I went to shout' GO GO' but the driver had slammed on the gas at that immediate moment. It was a diesel, so it was slow going. Right then we heard a POP and the windshield split in the corner near the driver's head. We escaped and were clear a few seconds later.
I checked the driver, no blood, the windshield didn't even get pierced. And in thinking about it later we realized that the gun was never fired. Out of the corner of his eye, the driver saw two men, one with a drawn slingshot.
So... thinking about it all afterwards (the attempted hold up took about 20 seconds if that).... and we got away clean.
Often times guns here are not loaded. So the strategy is for a point man to jump out , distract you with a gun, making all the noise he can, swearing, shouting, clicking the gun.... while guys from the side attack the car. The gun man is trying to get you to stop. If you stop, that's it, they'll pull you out if they can, and leave you on the side of the road as they run off with your car. Even a successful carjacking leaves the vehicle owners unharmed (mad but unharmed).
We realize our lives were never in much danger. Our adrenaline really didn't even get going because we both realized in mere seconds afterward that the gun hadn't fired.
They tried to make us think it did with the rock being sling shot at the windshield.
Even had they pulled us out, there likely would not have been any violence, unless we decided to fight back (which being alone the 2 of us, we probably would have).
This had been this 3rd attempted car jacking... in 10 years here. He knew what to look for, plus he's a gunhead missionary kid, so his instinct had him looking around. While I was recognizing there was a gun, he was doing that, and scanning left and right, which is how he saw the slingshot off to the right.
Silly side story -
the funniest hold up attempt we've ever heard of, was a guy walking into a bank with an empty handgun, and he pulled the hammer back to cock it, about ten times... making it obvious he had no shells... but he figured if he made the gun click enough people would get scared.
That's sort of what this shaking was about... he was shaking the gun, and then another guy fired a rock, trying to scare us. We were startled but never got to 'frightened'.
Like I said, it all happened a bit quick, we did all the right things. God protected us, it turned out fine.
The goal of the trip to town was to do some bargain grocery shopping and pick up the survey team (a team of 4 adventurous souls who hike the bush/jungle to find people in need of a Bible translation), but ended up having to pay for a new windshield. The cost of the windshield will come to around $500.
Overall, I found the experience to be far less dramatic than it sounds, and folks around here seem to be very calm about it too. Because we know that a carjacking usually winds up with the people being unharmed and finding their car in a few days.... the car might be damaged, but it gets found.
Praises:
- I didn't have my wife or kids with me
- we got out of it without so much as a bruise
- I have a much better idea as to what I'm looking for now as I drive around, it'll help me react even better.
- I can't think of a better person to have gone through the experience with as he both agreed on the plan of action, had discussed it in the eventuality of this happening, and then executed the plan well. As far as a first hold up goes... this was the best possible experience.
- It was the 1 final thing we haven't had happen to us yet in this country that at some time, nearly every missionary here has experienced here... so now we feel fully into the culture and now I know, that this event that sometimes terrifies and traumatizes others into leaving the field... is not really that traumatizing. I suspect had we passengers they might not even have realized what happened because it happened so quick and quietly.
- Thanks to God for keeping us safe!
