ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis man thought he was a carjacking victim when he was violently attacked and his car was taken. Police say he’s wrong, and that has this victim wondering if we know the full scope of the carjacking crisis in St. Louis.
“This is just about the first day I can sort of get to work,” Andy McKim said.
He's still recovering after he says a group of teenagers attacked him Monday as he was unloading groceries from his car in St. Louis' Shaw neighborhood.
"All of a sudden they start telling me to drop my keys. I have no idea what's going on, so I actually get punched in the mouth,” he said.
The punch drew blood, he said.
"I was like, it's my life or my car,” he said.
The thieves got away with the car. Andy said police found it Wednesday wrecked in North St. Louis two days after the crime.
"I would call it carjacking,” Andy said.
What happened to Andy was not a carjacking because “no weapon was displayed or indicated,” Officer Michelle Woodling said.
"I'm just at a loss for words,” Andy said.
He said if police don't classify his case as a carjacking, he wonders how many other victims like him are out there.
Police started tracking carjackings last year when they reported 350 in the city.
"Who knows how many there could be?” Andy said.
We took that question to Mayor Lyda Krewson.
"There are parameters for those type of classification, no one's trying to hide any of the statistics,” Krewson said.
She says the numbers aren't the point.
"If you're the victim of a personal violent crime, the statistics aren't what you're thinking about. You're thinking about what happened to you and your family."
Andy said he's thinking about both.
"Knowledge is the only thing that's gonna protect us,” he said.
We submitted a sunshine request to police to ask how many other cases like Andy's are out there.
Last year crime was down in the Shaw neighborhood 41 percent from the year before.
And in all of 2018 there was one recorded carjacking in Shaw.