A man who was carjacked while waiting in a Federal Way parking lot ended up making a daring escape from his captors.
At around 4 p.m. July 8 at the Costco parking lot outside 35100 Enchanted Pkwy. S., a 56-year-old Latino man sat in his parked car in the shade with his windows down before a suspect, a Black male in his 20s, came up to the car.
According to the police report, the suspect wore all black clothing except a red, white and blue American flag Halloween mask. The suspect reached his hands through the open window of the victim’s car, then entered and sat in the passenger seat.
The suspect told the victim to start driving, then grabbed the victim’s wallet — which contained $500, his bank cards, and personal IDs — off the center console.
While driving, the suspect continually made threats toward the victim. The suspect said he knew where the victim lived and would harm him and his family if the victim called the cops. The suspect also said he was going to take everything from the victim, and continually said not to look at him.
According to the report, no weapon was ever seen, but the suspect would repeatedly gesture as if he had a weapon in his pocket. The victim, afraid for his life, did not question the weapon and followed the directions given by the suspect. The suspect directed him onto northbound Interstate 5 and eventually to a Walmart parking lot.
During the entire drive, a red SUV, possibly a Toyota 4-Runner, trailed the victim’s car. Once at the Walmart parking lot, a Black man in his 30s and a white woman in her 20s got out of the red SUV. Those two, along with the previous suspect, discussed how to extract all possible money from the vehicle and the victim.
According to the police report, the suspects demanded the victim hand over his phone and provide his phone password and pin number for his bank. With the knowledge of his pin number, the two suspects from the red SUV left, looking for an ATM.
In the victim’s car, there was an electronic device contained in the trunk that could be heard repeatedly beeping once the car had parked. The suspect thought it could be a tracking device, so he went to the trunk to check.
Once the suspect left the car, and with the other two looking for an ATM, the victim quickly drove away and fled to his sister’s house for safety and to call 911.
The victim called his bank, which confirmed that no withdrawals had been made. The victim lost his iPhone and wallet containing $500. The suspects are still unknown.
