Melissa Smith’s message to a would-be car thief was blunt: “I’m not dealing with this sort of crap today!”
The thief was attempting to steal her SUV, but she wasn’t going to let that happen. In fact, she jumped on the vehicle and mounted its hood, refusing to get off until the perpetrator gave up.
The incident, which occurred on Wednesday at a gas station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was captured on video and has since gone viral.
Commenting on the episode, CNN’s Brooke Baldwin asked Smith: “Are you crazy?”
“Apparently a little,” Smith replied, before explaining her actions.
“If I held onto the side, I knew he could just drag me and leave,” she said. But with her on the hood, she knew he couldn’t ignore her.
“I was screaming at him. I pounded on the windshield a couple times,” recalled Smith. “He, in turn, laughed at me…tried throwing me off, and continued to laugh at me.”
However, Smith got the last laugh.
After turning on the windshield wipers and slamming the brakes in an unsuccessful attempt to force her off the hood, the carjacker gave up and fled into another vehicle. Smith immediately jumped off the hood, into the cabin and stopped the rolling vehicle.
Smith admitted that her actions weren’t safe, but said she wouldn’t “tolerate that sort of behavior.”
After the frightening ordeal, Smith said she called her fiancé, who had a “holy smokes moment” when he saw the video.
“He wasn’t too thrilled with my decision, but is very glad that I am safe,” she said.