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Panic at the pump: Gas stations being targeted for violent crime

Police said there are three easy steps to follow to protect yourself and your family.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Car thefts can happen in the few seconds your back is turned, and in more and more cases, even while your kids are in the car.

Surveillance video from the Atlanta area showed a mother get out of her car to get gas. A black car pulled up beside her, a man got out and crept into the woman’s car and sped off.

She ran behind, screaming, because her three -year-old was in the backseat. Luckily, the child wasn’t hurt, and police arrested a 17-year-old.

Just last week, a Charlotte mother’s car was stolen in the few minutes she stepped inside a 7-Eleven. Her eight and 11-year-old sons were ordered by the suspects to get out.

“Make sure you take your kids and your keys. I give God all the glory cause he could have went a different way,” that woman told NBC Charlotte.

Last year, a man stole a family’s vehicle from a Quick Trip with two kids in the car. The kids jumped out as the vehicle drove off.

Police said there are three easy steps to follow to protect yourself and your family.

“We want to take the keys out of the car right off the bat. We definitely want to lock the doors. And if we can find a pump where we can actually pull the trigger on it and let it pump by itself, that way it gives us a little more leeway where we can walk around the car and make sure no one’s coming up on us,” Crime Prevention Officer Jonathan Frisk explained.

Authorities urged you to put down the phone down and keep your guard up. Police said these are usually crimes of opportunity. So if you look like an easy target, criminals are going to take advantage.

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