Former Philadelphia Controller speaks out after being carjacked by armed suspect
"There's a guy with a ski mask and had a gun in his hand," recalled Former City Controller Alan Butkovitz.
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- A longtime city leader has become the latest victim of Philadelphia's carjacking crisis.
Former City Controller Alan Butkovitz says it happened Tuesday night moments after he pulled up in front of his home right around 8 p.m.
"And I turned around. There's a guy with a ski mask and had a gun in his hand and he's banging on the window saying, 'Get the f**k out. Get the f**k out or I'll kill you right now,'" recalled Butkovitz.
The long-time public official admits it took a few moments for him to realize his attacker was trying to steal his older model Ford Fusion.
That's when he got out of the car, gave the carjacker his keys, and went face-down on the roadway as instructed by his attacker.
"It was a strange kind of feeling in that you weren't fearful of it. It was like, 'This is how everything ends?' And it'll just be a bullet to the head or something and I won't even know about it," said Butkovitz.
In the end though, while Butkovitz lost his vehicle, he was not injured.
He quickly called police who informed him that while this crime is alarming, it's not surprising.
"They told us there's been a lot of carjackings within three or four blocks of this immediate vicinity," explained Butkovitz.
According to the Action News Data Journalism team, carjackings, year-to-date, are down dramatically coming off a record-shattering year.
The 70-year-old politician says despite looking down the barrel of a gun and losing his car, he feels like a very lucky man.
"I was strangely not really angry at him afterwards. I was mostly grateful that it hadn't been worse," said Butkovitz.
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