ST. LOUIS — A woman in St. Louis said she struggles daily with PTSD after being carjacked earlier this year. According to numbers from St. Louis Police, she is one of 248 people who have been carjacked just this year.
She's sharing her story only with 5 On Your Side.
Her incident happened back in February. She said it's something she's done so many times, she didn't even think twice about it. Lauren said she pulled up to her apartment on Pershing Avenue near Washington University, put it in park and got out. Moments later, she found herself surrounded by three men and a gun.
"One of them was demanding that I give my keys," said Lauren, who is asking us to not show her face or reveal her full name. "Then he started saying, 'I’ll shoot you, I’ll shoot you, give me your keys give me your keys,' so I started digging through my purse for my keys."
As the men got more hostile, she became more and more flustered.
"Eventually I just gave him my whole purse and then I watched all three of them drive away in my car," she remembers.
In the months since this happened in February, she's replaced the items she lost, but the memories of what happened just won't fade away.
"There’s not a time I get into my car now and don’t feel like I need to check around to make sure someone isn’t following me into the car or a time I don’t walk through a door and expect to see someone on the other side holding a gun," said Lauren.
She said she never fathomed she could be a victim.
"Absolutely not. That was what was going through my head when it was happening. I think part of my hesitation in handing things over to him was like - this isn’t real," she said.
At first. Lauren feared her case would go unsolved, until earlier this summer, when she bought a new computer.
"And I went to sync my photos and when I did, all the photos from my old phone that had been stolen popped up instead of the new phone I have now," she said.
She found herself staring at pictures of a face, she remembered all too well.
"That day was pretty hard just to get the face out of my mind and when I said my husband went through the screenshots, I couldn't stand to look at them," said Lauren.
She gave all of the information she found to police. That was in June.
Last week, she called the police back to see if they had any updates.
"And he told me the man had actually been found dead in his home. They’re still investigating what exactly the nature of his death was," said Lauren.
Lauren was devastated to hear this, but is also frustrated at the pace her case was investigated.
"Here’s his name and nothing happens. I have to wonder, where’s the disconnect? What’s the missing piece? What do police need for support to be able to do something about this?" she said.
She believes cases like hers need more attention because while there may not be physical scars, it can leave behind a lifetime of emotional pain.
"I don’t think I’ll ever be the same, I hope I can get to the point where I’m living not in fear," said Lauren. "Until we’re standing up and saying we’re not OK with this, and this actually has an impact on my life, nobody is going to see it as serious enough to change."
Lauren said she’s optimistic but not expecting anything to be done about the two others that were involved in her carjacking.
In the meantime, she did not spend another night in this apartment after what happened. She said the memories were just too painful to stick around.
Preventing carjackings
5 On Your Side reached out to Mike Barbieri, a personal security expert with Global Intelligence Consultants, for some tips on how to avoid being carjacked.
