This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A would-be carjacker was caught in North Salt Lake this week after he tried to steal a vehicle with a stick shift he couldn't operate.
According to charges filed Wednesday, the man, 20, held a victim at knifepoint Monday at a restaurant parking lot and demanded his keys. The victim complied, and the man got in the car, police wrote.
"He then tried to start the vehicle, which has a manual transmission, but was unable to drive away in the vehicle," police wrote.
The victim got into a friend's car that was also at the restaurant, locked the doors and called police, investigators wrote. The man told the friend to open the door and tried unsuccessfully to open a locked door.
When officers found the man he was carrying a meth pipe and said he previously used meth, police wrote. He then gave a false name to the officers, the charges state.
The man was charged with two first-degree felony counts of aggravated robbery and misdemeanor counts of use of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia and giving false information to a law enforcement officer.