Despite knife to throat, woman fights back

Woman pulled out her car and attacked uses pepper spray on robbers

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Westside woman robbed in a parking early Sunday morning says she thought she was going to die.

The woman says the men slit her throat and took her wallet, but she fought back using pepper spray. Fortunately, the two robbers were only armed with a butter knife, so her injuries were not severe.

"I thought they were going to cut my head off," said the woman, whose name is not being used because the robbers are still on the loose.

She said she was headed through a strip-mall parking lot toward the Krystal's drive-through on 103rd Street when two men blocked her car. One of them ran over to open her door.

"I'm trying to pull the door back. He jerked it really hard and I went out the door and fell right there at his leg," she told Channel 4's Jim Piggott. "I looked up at him to get a picture of his face and I had my pepper spray on me, and as I looked up, that is when I had my throat slit from ear to ear. And I was scared as anything, but I was able to pepper spray him."

One of them grabbed her wallet, but they ran off.

After watching Channel 4's interview with the victim, crime expert Ken Jefferson said she forgot to do one very important thing.

"You got to always remember to lock your door once you get in the car because that is the first place someone is going to go: to your driver's side and pull the door open and pull you out," Jefferson said.

But Jefferson applauded her being willing to fight back.

"She had pepper spray and had been slightly cut and bruised, but she still fought back," Jefferson said.

Since it was before dawn in a secluded area of the parking lot, no one has reported witnessing the attack. Anyone that has any information about the robbery or the two men is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 866-845-TIPS.