PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — A Portsmouth woman is speaking out after being carjacked in her driveway.
This happened in broad daylight as she was getting ready to leave for a funeral.
Police say it happened just after 9 a.m. last Saturday morning on Benton Avenue.
Felecia Smith was walking to her car in the driveway about to leave for a funeral when two men walked up to her saying ‘good morning.’ The next thing she knew, there was a gun to her chest.
“He said ‘give me your purse, where the money at?’ I said ‘man I don’t have any money. I’m on my way to a funeral,'” Smith said.
Smith calmly followed demands, giving up her keys. Her parents’ security camera captured the moment two men drove off with her car. She then carefully walked back inside in case the suspects were watching her.
“My children are here, my mom, my dad, my husband, my grandmother—she’s in there on hospice. I didn’t lose my mind until I got inside,” Smith said.
She broke down as soon as she closed the door and police were called. Smith said police told her the men led officers on a high speed chase through Chesapeake, Norfolk and Portsmouth—ultimately crashing on Effingham Street in Portsmouth. Smith later learned they were juveniles and says police told her one of them was involved in a murder investigation.
“I’m so glad that it happened the way that it did,” Smith said.
Smith believes the carjacking happened so that the men involved would get caught with God protecting her in the process.
“It was nobody but God. It was God’s peace that set over me,” Smith said.
Smith’s message to other women is to be quick and watch your surroundings, even in your own backyard.
“I’m not going to live in fear but I am going to be careful,” Smith said.
She told 10 On Your Side she wanted to share her story in hopes of helping others who find themselves in a similar situation.
