Video: Car owner flings himself on top of car during attempted vehicle theft

CHICAGO (CBS) — Dramatic video shows an attempted car theft in action in Edgewater. 

As CBS 2’s Marybel Gonzalez reported, witnesses say it’s lucky no one nearby was hurt in the process. 

The incident happened on Thorndale near Broadway in the middle of the day Friday — on a busy street full of small businesses. A few of the employees who were working at the time said they are still shaken up about it. 

It looks like a stunt out of a movie. In the images, widely circulated on social media, a man can be seen clinging to the top of the front window of a car as the vehicle is wreckleslly making a U-turn on Thorndale Avenue. 

The car driver speeds up, weaving through other cars stopped at the stoplight near Broadway, nearly hitting witnesses. 

According to the 911 dispatcher calls, a man was trying to stop the driver from stealing his car. Witnesses say the man had gone into a nearby liquor store and may have left his car running. They say that’s when a young man got into his car and tried to drive away. 

But when the car owner saw it happening, he flung himself on top of it. 

The video shows the car make another sudden U-turn in the middle of the intersection before taking off northbound on Broadway Street with the man still on top of it. 

Witnesses said at some point the would-be car thief runs back to the scene, limping, before getting onto the Red Line CTA train and taking off. 

“I have several witnesses who say that the subject who stole the car with the gentleman on top apparently abandoned the car at some point. He ran back to the Red Line platform, got on the train and is now headed southbound on the Red Line train,” the dispatcher can be heard saying.

The dispatcher says the car was abandoned on Broadway about half a block north of Thorndale Avenue. It’s unclear if the owner of the car was injured. 

Witnesses say police arrived after the car had stopped and the suspect ran away. 

CBS 2 reached out to police to see if they are investigating the case and was waiting to hear back Sunday evening. No word yet on any arrests in the incident.