Welcome to Detroit: Police Chief Gets Too-Close Look At Carjacking Problem

Q. How prevalent is carjacking in Detroit?

A. It's so prevalent even the new police chief has a close call.

"I got angry," Chief James Craig says of a near-carjacking two weeks ago. (WXYZ photo)

James Craig shared his first hand-experience Monday evening with more than four dozen residents at an anti-carjacking seminar.

Craig told the crowd he narrowly avoided a carjacking himself, driving an unmarked police car.

He said he was stopped at a red light two weeks ago on Jefferson.

“There are certain cars each suspect tends to (be attracted) to, and I guess they liked my police car — a police car with lights,” Craig said. “And one suspect jumped out and began running toward the passenger side of my vehicle. . . . As soon as I saw the suspect running to my car, I accelerated out of harm’s way.

“And then, candidly, I got angry ... I said, ‘I can’t believe this just almost happened.’ ”

You can't make up this stuff.

Craig, who arrived in July, also told attendees that it didn't take long to realize carjacking is “almost like a way of life in Detroit,” Briscoe reports.