HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – A man says he’s grateful to be alive after being carjacked by two teenagers in a car that didn’t even belong to him.
Nestor Santorio told Local 10 News Thursday that the incident happened around 4:45 p.m. Tuesday near the 900 block of Hillcrest Drive.
Santorio said he had just returned from the grocery store when he spotted the teens in the area and before he knew it, had a gun pointed at him and the car he was using was stolen.
“I am still in shock,” he said. “I heard (someone say) behind me, ‘Don’t move.’ I turned around and saw two guys with the gun.”'
The armed robbery was caught on Santorio’s surveillance camera as both suspects demanded that he hand over his keys, phone and cash.
Local 10 News spoke with Oleksandr Nehrii, who lives nearby and called police after witnessing the incident.
“We need to take care of each other,” said Nehrii. “We started to chase the car they stole.”
Hollywood police said officers in the area located the stolen vehicle and deployed the Grappler which made the yellow Chevy Camero come to a complete stop near Washington and 56th Ave.
Police said after Terrell Kirkland and Santiago Iglesias, both 17, were taken into custody, a gun that one of them threw out of the car window during the pursuit, was recovered at the crime scene.
Authorities said they were able to catch up with the vehicle and attempted to make a stop, but the suspects continued to avoid police orders and crashed into another officer’s vehicle.
Surveillance video obtained by Local 10 News Wednesday shows when police got close enough, they were able to deploy one of the department’s newly received six Grappler devices, which wrapped a net around the rear tires and brought the vehicle to a controlled stop.
Police said Kirkland and Iglesias were transported to a juvenile assessment center in Broward County.
Iglesias is facing charges of armed carjacking, fleeing and leaving the scene of a crash and Kirkland is facing one count of armed jacking, according to jail records.