Osceola County Sheriff's Office deputies said Tuesday morning that a woman stopped at the entrance to Emerald Island in Kissimmee was carjacked by an armed man.
Deputies said the woman told them a man approached her car and asked to use her phone. He then attempted to open the door, reached into the car, pulled out a gun, and ordered the woman out of the car using profanity, they said.
The woman asked if she could take her infant with her and the man agreed, telling her to take her baby and leave.
Her passenger was also ordered out and said the man tried to grab her arm and phone but she resisted.
Deputies said the man drove off in the black Nissan Altima and ditched the car in the The Villages at Hunter's Creek in South Orange County.
The front right tire on the car was shredded and the rim was damaged.
"This guy came running out of nowhere. I'm thinking he's hurt so I asked him, 'What's a matter?'" James, a construction worker in the area, said. "He said 'I need help. I need help.' I said, 'What do you need help with?' He said, 'I need a ride, I need a ride. I'll give you money.' I said, 'No we're working.'"
Witnesses said the man looked desperate.
"So he ran around the building and I ran around the building because I didn't want him to go into the building and hide and I didn't want him to hurt somebody else, so I chased him around the building," James said. "So then he ran through the parking lot and it looked like he was going to run up to this lady. And then he started running again. I was just worried about him hurting someone else, because he just had a crazy look in his eyes. Never seen anyone like that before."
Witnesses said the man ran off down John Young Parkway.
Deputies said they arrested the passenger in the car, identified as Amber Dangerfield.
This is the at least the seventh carjacking in Central Florida this month.
On Monday night, Orange County deputies said two teenagers put on masks and dragged a woman out of her Hyundai in a Winter Park shopping center at Aloma Avenue and Semoran Boulevard.
Last week, a woman vacuuming her convertible Camaro at a Deltona Ractrack gas station was carjacked. She told us she tried to take her keys but the carjacker slapped her.
"I actually sat down somewhat in the car and I said, 'Please don't do this to me' and was crying hysterically," the woman told News 6.
Days before that, a woman was bumped in front of a Windermere school and pulled over in front of the bus loop. She was yanked out of her car.
Two weeks ago in downtown Mount Dora, a man with a gun ordered a driver out of his car.
And at the beginning of November, a war veteran was found shot to death in a Deltona ditch. Deputies believe he tried to help a stuck driver and was carjacked.
Police warn drivers not to stop your car unless you have to. If you must stop, pull into a public place, ideally a police station.