Montgomery County Police are investigating an armed carjacking at 6:55 PM tonight in Bethesda. The incident occurred in the 7800 block of Hampden Lane. Police say the carjacked vehicle is a red Volvo SUV, with MD tag 1AE3792. The stolen car was last spotted at 14th Street and Primrose in the District sometime after 7:00 PM, police say. That suggests the suspects are no longer in our area.
If you spot the car, call 911 immediately.
Police pursued the Volvo through downtown Silver Spring, but the carjackers were lost after last being seen at the above-referenced intersection in Washington.
The 18-year-old female victim was parked on this residential part of Hampden Lane, west of downtown Bethesda, and using her cellphone while the Volvo was running. Police say a masked black male opened the driver's side door and placed a gun to the victim's head. A second black male grabbed the victim's bag through the passenger-side door, and a third male carjacker of undetermined race stood by.
Anyone with information about the crime is asked to call the Major Crimes Division at 240-773-5070. Those who wish to remain anonymous may call Crime Solvers of Montgomery County toll-free at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477). Crime Solvers will pay a cash reward of up to $10,000 for information provided to them that leads to an arrest and/or indictment for this felony crime.
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ReplyDeleteAnonymous is flipping out again...
ReplyDeleteVery odd choice of vehicles to steal.
ReplyDeleteLookie here. Everyone is an expert on everything on this website. This commenter even thinks they know about which cars are popular to carjack and which are not.
ReplyDeleteDon't take it from me.
Deletehttp://www.automotive.com/best-cars/least-stolen-cars/volvo-v70.html#__federated=1
Wow this is scary, thanks for reporting. I bet there was a fourth who was driving the other three around looking for a target.
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ReplyDeleteAre you aware that the car you linked to and the car stolen here are actually completely different cars?
ReplyDeleteDid Dyer get a new volvo last night?!
ReplyDeleteSad days for Bethesda.
ReplyDeleteStealing and jacking cars are two distinctly different crimes.
ReplyDeleteYou steal cars your buyers want - buyers who chop popular models for parts or ship containers of recent-model vehicles to, say, Latin America. Those are the cars that populate the list linked above.
But you jack cars to move you where you want to go at the moment. If the keys are in the car - and hell, yes, if the car's already running - and the driver looks easy to subdue, you've got wheels. You're ditchin' the car so what kind of car it is doesn't matter.
Haha good points. Any experience? J/k
DeleteA neighbor says this incident occurred around where a house was robbed six weeks ago.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to bet the backdrop on Dyer's fast food review videos that there's more to this story that will come out in a few days.
ReplyDeleteIf you look at the location on a map, it's very residential and not part of Hampden Lane near downtown Bethesda. Would a pack of thieves really stake out a quiet residential street in hope that someone's going to drive up with their car, stop it on the street, and stay in the car with it running while they use their phone? That's a lot to hope for -- the typical scenario would be the person comes home and parks in their garage.
So my guess is the perpetrators somehow know the victim, like:
1. Victim was meeting perps for other reasons (buying drugs?) and they decided to rob the victim instead.
2. Perpetrator and/or friends of perpetrator are an ex or acquiantance of victim.
3. The robbery was staged by victim in cahoots with perpetrators for some reason.
I think it's more likely #1 or #2. I'm sure we'll hear more as the investigation continues. This just seems like an awfully huge coincidence in terms of place, time, and circumstances, to be random.
"Would a pack of thieves really stake out a quiet residential street in hope that someone's going to drive up with their car, stop it on the street, and stay in the car with it running while they use their phone?"
ReplyDeleteI wondered the same. Doesn't really pass the smell test. I'm also wondering if the description of the perps is on the level.
"That suggests the suspects are no longer in our area."
ReplyDeleteLOLwut? 14th & Primrose is closer to Bethesda than Pike & Rose.
And how could the police lose the car in that neighborhood? It doesn't seem like the place where you could get a lot of speed to make a getaway.