Wolverhampton councillor dragged from Mercedes in violent carjacking
A crowbar-wielding hooded thug hurled a city councillor to the ground and threatened her during a vicious carjacking in front of her home.
Councillor Sandra Samuels OBE was dragged out of her £42,000 E300 Mercedes-Benz AMG and thrown onto her driveway in Needwood Close, Goldthorn Park, Wolverhampton, during the incident on Saturday evening.
The 60-year-old says the terrifying incident has left her devastated and afraid to leave the house.
She says police suspect the car – which has not been recovered – was stolen to order. No arrests have been made.
It comes amid police warnings of a surge in violent carjackings across the West Midlands, as criminal gangs target high performance cars, often for spare parts which are sold on for insurance write-offs.
Ettingshall councillor Mrs Samuels, who was first elected to Wolverhampton Council in 2004 and is the authority’s cabinet member for adults, says she pulled up on her drive on returning home from a shopping trip to Wolverhampton.
She turned the engine off, opened the door and started to get out of the car.
Dragged
Mrs Samuels said: “All I could see was this hooded person by the door. He shouted ‘get out of the car and give me the f****** keys’.
“I froze. He dragged me by my right arm and I went down on the floor. I tried to get up and run and shouted for help.
“He pushed me over and straddled me while I was lying on the ground. I looked up and he was holding a crowbar in the air above my head.”
Mrs Samuels, a retired senior theatre sister at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital, says the man threatened her with the weapon and she started to scream.
