When three female suspects assaulted an elderly woman and tried to steal her car Thursday night, a fellow Safeway shopper literally jumped onto the car to stop the caper.

The recent Bay Area pattern of targeting elderly victims for theft and violent crime saw another such incident last Thursday night, albeit this one with a little happier an ending than most. A KGO report today describes how shortly after 5 p.m. last Thursday at an SF Safeway location, a 75-year-old woman was the intended target of an assault and carjacking — but a fellow shopper halted the theft by intervening, and gave the suspects enough of a scare that they fled.

The Safeway is not specifically identified in the report, though it's clearly the store at Cabrillo Avenue and Seventh Avenue. The good Samaritan describes that he saw an elderly woman being attacked, and the three assailants have taken her purse and keys to her red Lexus. Upon the attackers trying to drive the car away, the fellow who intervened smashed the back window of the Lexus, which was apparently enough to get the would-be thieves to abort the mission. (And ironically, they rush to an apparent accomplice lookout vehicle, which drives off without them.)

"I'm walking across the parking lot and I see this old woman being dragged across by her head, these girls are punching her and kicking and stomped on," the unidentified good samaritan told KGO. “But I just punched through the back window and it was loud. It was loud enough and kind of scary enough to freak them out."

Neither the victim nor the intervening party is identified, though the fellow who intervened does give an on-screen Zoom-style interview to KGO. We see from his backdrop that he is a Bernie supporter, and the report does otherwise detail that he’s a recent college graduate and apparently an almond milk drinker, because that's what he dropped during the melee. The victim was happy enough that she didn’t ask to be compensated for the smashing of her car’s rear window.  

But given that carjackings have been an issue of recent, anyone with information on this incident is encouraged to contact the anonymous SFPD tip-line at 415-575-4444, or text a tip to TIP411.

Related: Felon With Recent Arrests, Wearing Ankle Monitor, Arrested as Suspect In DoorDash Driver Carjacking/Kidnapping [SFist]
Image: Kevin S via Yelp