Two Georgia car thieves failed to make their getaway in a car they had just stolen because they couldn’t figure out how to use its manual transmission, a witness said on Wednesday.

The teenagers armed with a gun approached a man outside a pizza restaurant in Marietta, Georgia, late on Monday. They stole his wallet and the keys to his Honda Accord, got into the car but couldn’t make it start because it had stick shift, according to John Williamson, 18, a restaurant employee.

“The kid was just sitting in the car trying to start it but he had no idea what to do. He looked dumbfounded. The only thing he had going was the radio,” said Williamson who witnessed the scene.

While the thief was trying to start the car, restaurant employees called the police who arrived and caught the teenagers as they tried to escape into nearby woods.

Carjackers who don’t know what they’re stealing? Bet they made it through No Child Left Behind.



  1. OhForTheLoveOf says:

    As I have said right here on this blog every day for the last five years – Everyone needs to learn to drive a stick!

    except for carjackers

  2. caa says:

    from reading the story, doesn’t even look like they got to hard part of letting the clutch out without stalling the engine…. They never stepped on the clutch to start the engine. Just like the folks that can’t start their cars because they’re not in park. (love those safety features)

  3. TheGlobalWarmer says:

    Even motorcycles should have automatics. This is the 21st century for Gawd’s sake! So sad.

  4. Raff says:

    If your too stupid to drive a stick.. (barring the disabled of course) You shouldn’t be driving anyway.

  5. natefrog says:

    Haha, this is actually one of the reasons I give when people ask why I drive stick. Less chance of having the car stolen or being carjacked! I’m only half joking when I tell people that!

  6. Andy says:

    Guess it’s not as easy as it looked when the kids were at home playing Grand Theft Auto.

  7. Improbus says:

    Well there is the bright side of the dumbing down of America. Criminals so stupid even cops can catch them. Yay.

  8. This reminded me so much of my personal experioence with the crooks who tried few years ago to steal my 1980’s Peugeot 504. Diesel…
    They broke the drivers window, got in and messed-up with the ignition lock and wiring. Peugeot’s ignition lock took minimal effort to break (after their work I could start car without the key…), but the car remained in the parking lot. I haven’t seen the crooks but I can imagine bewilderment as they failed….
    For non-diesel oriented readers, old diesel engines required spark plugs to be turned on and heated up for half minute or so before turning on the key…

  9. tallwookie says:

    rofl!! dumbass highschool dropouts

  10. robert jantz-lee says:

    My sister-in-law asked to borrow my car. She had to run a quick errand. An hour later she came back and admitted that she could not get the key out of the ignition. It was a manual transmission and therefore the key was not released by putting the shift into “park” like in an automatic. For the manual transmission there was a little lever by the ignition that had to be depressed.

    I had to go out to the parking lot to disengage the keys.

  11. Mark T. says:

    “Bet they made it through No Child Left Behind.”

    It must be Bush’s fault that they are so stupid, huh? Pah-leez.

  12. god says:

    #12 – pwned.

  13. Mr. Fusion says:

    I only drive an automatic because my wife refuses to drive a standard. But then I come from a generation where most women and all guys drove standards.

  14. TheGlobalWarmer says:

    #5 – So how do you drive without putting your coffee down.

    Then if you’re a secret agent and have to be able to shoot out the window while driving at high speed it’s even worse.

  15. Tippis says:

    #5 “If your too stupid to drive a stick.. (barring the disabled of course) You shouldn’t be driving anyway.”

    …I don’t know how to drive an automatic, but find stick incredibly easy. Does that mean I’m so clever I’ve become stupid? 😉

  16. Jonathan Fox says:

    #16 In the UK most people drive stick and they still manage to jabber on the phone, do their makeup, eat burgers, pick their nose and rummage in the glove box ad infinitum, ad nauseum.

    Automatics are heavy on gas. I used to drive one when I first started driving but driving a manual transmission makes you feel like you are really driving. Part of the fun when on a mountain pass or a country road is selecting the right gear at the right time and really get ting to know how the car handles. Just sticking it in ‘drive’ is … well… errr… dull to say the least!

  17. Simon says:

    #4

    I tend to agree, why do we insist on manual transmission, it’s kind of stupid, we got enough things going on when we’re driving as it is, adding gear shift doesn’t help.

    Note, I have no idea how automatic transmission work, never learn how to use it. I live in Denmark, manual transmission is standard and automatic is an expensive extra, which few people are willing to pay for. I just don’t get why I have to think about transmission when I don’t need to.

  18. BdgBill says:

    My girlfriend is french and refuses to even try to drive an automatic. It freaks her out that the car moves as soon as you take your foot off the brake.

    I drove a Ford Focus diesel with a manual transmission across France and Spain last summer. this car would have been a miserable bore with an automatic but was actually quite fun with a stick.

    I wonder if there are any real stats showing that manual transmission cars are stolen less often?

  19. Olo Baggins of Bywater says:

    Automatics are heavy on gas.

    Not anymore. There’s a difference…IF the driver knows how to shift properly. Otherwise, the differences aren’t as big as they were 20+ years ago.

    FWIW I can shift my auto Subaru with the gas pedal.

  20. natefrog says:

    #21: Everything else being equal, however, a manual should always get better gas mileage than an automatic if not only for the weight difference, but also the drain on power you get with an automatic. That being said, I have seen some American cars where the manual got worse gas mileage than the automatic. I can only imagine the transmission was poorly engineered.

  21. Stewart Urist says:

    I drive a Prius which has an automatic that is continiously variable. Prior to owning this car I always drove a manual for many of the reasons already noted. However, I can only say that I love everything about the Prius including it’s transmission.

  22. Pterocat says:

    Some years ago there was an item on a local radio station’s “weird news” segment about a guy who robbed a bank and tried to get away using a car that had been supplied to him by someone who didn’t know he was an ‘automatic transmission only’ kind of guy. Somehow he got it going in second gear, but couldn’t figure out why it wouldn’t shift by itself to go faster, no matter how hard he floored it. He was soon caught up with. Definitely slapstick material.

  23. Mr. Fusion says:

    #22, natefrog

    Most automatics today have a lower final ratio then do manuals. Plus, (as far as I know) they all use a lock up in DRIVE that is essentially a direct drive the same as a manual tranny. This is most noticeable with highway speeds.

    Automatics will do better then manuals at low speed acceleration because they can convert more power to torque that do manuals.

    The engineering for automatics has come a very long way, are very dependable, lighter weight, and fuel efficient then just 20 years ago.

  24. natefrog says:

    #25, Fusion:

    All things being equal, however, automatics are not as efficient as manuals and likely never will be. Automatics have come a long ways, but there’s only so much you can overcome with engineering before you can’t do much more.


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