Randolph Bean of Oviedo, Fla., had pulled over late Sunday night to text message his wife when two would-be carjackers approached his sporty yellow Corvette.
One, holding a gun, forced him to the ground while the other hopped in the driver’s seat, Bean, 51, told WKMG Local 6.
But there was a problem: The aspiring carjacker didn’t know how to start Bean’s car, a 2002 Millennium Yellow Z06 Corvette. (The car, used, sells for about $19,000.)
"The guy started screaming at me, 'How do I start the car?'" Bean told WKMG. Finally, the other guy, still holding Bean at gunpoint, hollered back, “It’s a stick!”
“I had to tell him four different times that you have to push in the clutch because it’s a standard transmission,” Bean told myfoxorlando.com.
The two assailants – Bean said they were handsome young men -- ultimately ran away with his phone, wallet and keys. The wallet, he said, was special because his wife made it.
“My first thought was I guess we don’t have driver’s ed in school anymore because no one knows how to drive a stick,” he told myfoxorlando.com. “And my second thing was, ‘Don’t shoot me because you can’t start the car! I am trying to help you out here.’”
