LAKEWOOD, Colo. — The Lakewood Police Department is investigating a carjacking that happened early Monday morning.
It left Pamela Bukowski afraid to leave her home.
"I am in disbelief. I can't believe that something like that would happen," she said Tuesday.
It was about 1:15 a.m. Monday when Bukowski left her home to visit her friend down the street near the Wright Park area. She wasn't feeling well and knew her friend had some medicine.
"I get in my car, I look around and I see there's a car kind of blocking the driveway. As I pull up, it moves forward. I look in the rear-view mirror, I see there's another car that's kind of speeding," she said.
She wasn't too concerned about it. People are always speeding down Wright Street, she says. But then, the drivers followed her into her friend's apartment complex. She thought perhaps they were lost.
"I get out of my car and reach in to grab my purse. And as I stood up, there's a man behind me with a bandana and he has a gun pointing straight in my face and he says, 'Give me your keys,'" she said.
She was so scared, Bukowski said, that she handed the robber her keys and wallet. He also stole her phone. Immediately, she ran screaming to her friend's apartment and called 911.
"It's heartbreaking. It's something we don't want to see and it's something that we're not going to tolerate," Lakewood police spokesman John Romero said.
He says what Bukowski did by handing the thieves what they wanted likely saved her life.
"Your valuables, your car, your phone, your keys. It's not worth your life," Romero said.
Police are investigating, and they're sharing Bukowski's car description — silver 2013 Hyundai Accent — with other jurisdictions. The suspect is described as a man wearing a giraffe-print mask or scarf.
The situation has left Bukowski devastated.
"It is beating me down to where I don't feel like I'm important," she said.
Because she's disabled, catching a bus ride isn't an option.
"I have osteoporosis, severe bone deterioration," she said. "I'm going to try to find the car. I'm just crossing my fingers that I can find it."
Her family has started a GoFundMe.
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