There’s an increasingly popular joke that, if nothing else, a manual transmission is an effective theft deterrent. It’s true that a growing majority of drivers can’t operate a manual transmission. But that didn’t stop a carjacker in California—she just took the vehicle’s owner hostage at gunpoint to chauffeur her in his stick-shift SUV.

A couple told Healdsburg police they had stopped at Gibbs Park north of Santa Rosa to use the restroom. Walking back to their car, they saw a woman who appeared to need help. But when they got close, she pulled out a handgun. She mugged them and took their car keys too. For good measure, she hit the wife with her gun and left her bleeding.

The would-be thief and her accomplice then tried to take the couple’s SUV and discovered it had a manual transmission. Neither Amina Vaden, 24, nor Davina Humphrey, 51, knew how to operate a clutch pedal. So they took the husband hostage at gun- and knifepoint.

Kidnapping a driver for the stick-shift SUV

When officers arrived at the park, they found the wife bleeding and took her to the hospital. She explained what had happened, and soon there was a countywide alert to pull over the stolen SUV. It was Petaluma police who spotted the SUV, driving south on U.S. Highway 101. The suspects are from Oakland, so it appears they were taking the stolen vehicle back home to the Bay Area.

The ensuing police chase included officers from Marin County, San Rafael, and Sonoma County law enforcement agencies. But it was the husband who eventually ended the chase by driving his own SUV off the road.

Both suspects took off on foot, but police quickly caught them. They had a minor with them, who was uninjured, as was the husband. Police charged the suspects with kidnapping, kidnapping during the commission of carjacking, robbery, child abuse, and assault with a firearm. They’re in the Sonoma County Jail and have yet to post their $1,020,000 bail.