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A 12-year-old managed to fight off a carjacker who wanted to steal her mother’s car.
Williamsburg authorities recently declared that a 12-year-old managed to save the family’s van and her younger sister from a man who tried to steal the car. The police officials stated that the man previously caused an accident and, in an attempt to escape the scene, jump into the family car and tried to hotwire it.
Carjacker Attempt to Leave the Scene by Stealing Family Van
An event that took place not too long ago in Williamsburg shows that quick-thinking can make a difference between life and death. The protagonists of this rather unsavory incident were Weiler, a mother, and her two daughters, 12-year-old Maddie and 7-year-old Mollie.
According to Weiler’s statements, she was driving with her daughter to Busch Gardens, when she saw two cars colliding. The woman stopped the vehicle and got out to render assistance to the vehicles’ occupants. Mollie and Maddie, her two daughters, remained inside the car.
Just as Weiler was preparing to dial 911, she saw an individual running towards her vehicles, with her daughters still inside. At that point, the woman believed that the deranged individual was going to abduct her two daughters. Luckily, Maddie, Weiler’s older daughter, was more than a match for the carjacker, later identified by the authorities as Paul Salsman.
The 12-Year-old Wrestled with the Carjacker Until Help Arrived
As soon as Salsman jumped into the vehicle in an attempt to steal it, Maddie began punching him in the face and screaming for help. Hearing her daughter calling for help, Weiler ran towards the vehicle, but, according to the authorities, by the time she got there, her daughter managed to fight off the carjacker.
Knowing that the individual could not start the vehicle in drive mode, Maddie quickly changed gears. The 12-year-old continue to scream for help and to hit the Salsman until he got out of the vehicle. When her mom approached the vehicle, the individual already fled. Weiler recalls shouting at Maddie and Mollie to get out of the car and away from Salsman.
A couple of minutes later, the authorities arrived and arrested Paul Salsman. According to the officers who managed to subdue the individual, when he saw that he could not steal Weiler’s vehicle, Salsman got out and tried to steal two more cars.
He was arrested and charged with hit and run (it would appear that it was he who cause the collision), DUI, and three counts of car theft. As for the 12-year-old girl, she was rushed to the hospital to get medical attention. The ER doctors told the reporters that Maddie had a fractured growth plate in her wrist, but otherwise healthy.
Image source: Wikipedia
