I think we're still processing and just grateful that no one was hurt.”

Carjacking victim

A woman and her 11-year-old child were victims of an armed carjacking near their home on the 200 block of East Meade Street on Thursday night, July 25.

The woman, who asked not to be identified, said she was driving her daughter and a friend home from an AJR concert at the Wells Fargo Center that night and had just dropped off her daughter's friend, who also lives on the block, when it happened.

That was at about 11:15 p.m.

"I had just let her out and watched her go inside the house when I started to look down the street toward where we were going," she said.

As she started to pull away, she saw the man walking toward her. He was in the middle of the street about 10 yards away, dressed in black and wearing a mask. The man appeared to have a raised gun in his hand as he approached the driver's side window.

"I opened the car door and said to him, 'What do you want?' And he said, 'The car.' So I said, 'Can I let my daughter get out first?' He said, 'Okay.' And when she was out, then I let him get into the driver's seat, and he took off." The man then sped off toward Anderson Street.

Then an odd thing happened, she said. The man drove the car to the end of the street but then did a three-point turn to start heading back in their direction.

Fearing he was coming back for them, the woman said she and her daughter hid on a neighbor's porch. But he did not stop and headed toward Ardleigh Street.

"Either he's not familiar with the area, or he wanted to come back to find us," she said. "I think he just didn't know where he was."

East Meade Street, a tiny, one-block residential street bounded by Ardleigh and Anderson Streets, is not an obvious throughway for anyone who is not familiar with Chestnut Hill's street pattern.

"We have lived in Chestnut Hill for over 20 years, and I've never experienced anything like this," the victim said. "I think we're still processing and just grateful that no one was hurt."

There were two other women on the street when the incident occurred, the victim said, and they asked whether she had her phone and if she needed them to call the police. She did have her phone, however, and she immediately called 911.

Police surveyed the area but did not find the suspect.

But they did find the car, a 2012 Subaru Impreza, at about 2:45 a.m. in the 2200 block of Bancroft Street in North Philadelphia.

The neighbor whose daughter was dropped off just before the crime occurred, who also asked not to be identified, said the incident had rattled the whole neighborhood.

"It's so sad. It's scary, and I mean, we've lived here for years and years and this never happens," the neighbor said. "I asked her, 'Why not scream or honk the horn?' but she said, 'I cannot do anything, you know, he had a gun.'"

Neighbors have since posted signs about the incident, warning residents to be on the lookout for suspicious activity.

"I was very shocked because it just seems very out of place for this area," said Chastity Stafford, a nearby neighbor. "I never feel like anything sketchy or shady is happening, so to read that I was like, 'What the hell?'"

Stafford said she has never had any issue or had any reason to feel afraid.

Another neighbor, Maria McDermott, said she found the whole thing very surprising.

"This (type of incident) is relatively new here, as far as I know, so it's concerning," McDermott said. "I love this neighborhood, I feel safe. It doesn't make me concerned enough to have to think about going anywhere."

Anne McNiff, the executive director of the Chestnut Hill Community Association, condemned the crime, calling it "unacceptable in any part of the city."

"I hope the assailant is apprehended as soon as possible," McNiff said.