By HAYLEY HARMON
6 News Anchor/Reporter
KNOXVILLE (WATE) - Two would-be carjackers were thwarted early Monday morning, not by police or bystanders, but by a manual transmission.
The carjacking attempt happened at the intersection of Merchants Drive and Davida Lane in North Knoxville.
Jamel Wilson, 18, and a 15-year old accomplice face aggravated robbery charges and their attempted crime is now a water cooler topic for local residents.
"I'm shocked that it's in my neighborhood. That bothers me a lot," said Mary Leu DeBusk, of Knoxville.
The owner of the car was stopped at a red light around 1:30 a.m. the Knoxville Police Department says, when Wilson and his accomplice walked up to him, asking for a cigarette.
The suspects then pulled out a gun and told the car owner to get out of the car.
He complied, the suspects jumped in and attempted to drive away.
It was only after getting into that car that they encountered something they hadn't planned for. The car was not an automatic, but was a stick shift, which the suspects didn't know how to drive.
The botched carjacking has a lot of people talking.
"I think it's funny that somebody steals something that they can't even steal. Wow. At least they got caught," said Elmer Sage, of Knoxville.
Some said they were shocked to hear that the criminals lacked the skill to drive a car with a manual transmission.
"When I taught my kids to drive, the first thing I taught them was how to drive a stick, because you never know when you're going to have to in an emergency," said DeBusk.
The lack of stick shift knowledge served as a crimestopper, one man noted.
"Sounds to me like poetic justice. If you didn't learn how to drive a stick shift and you got caught doing something stupid that, then you deserve to get what you get," said Tim Moore, of Knoxville.
Most people said they were glad to see that justice, in whatever form it came, was served.
"We all shake our heads and say you're just too stupid to be a criminal. You didn't think this through and you don't know what you're doing," said DeBusk.
The would-be carjackers fled on foot, but police arrested them just a short time later on Clinton Highway.
The manual transmission mess-up worked out well for the owner of the car.
"More people should learn how to drive a stick shift, but in this case, it was a good thing that they didn't," said Moore.
Police say they recovered a gun used in the alleged carjacking.
Jamel Wilson is being held on $50,000 bond.
