ORLANDO, Fla. — A man in the Baldwin Park area of Orlando is warning neighbors to be extra cautious after he was carjacked at gunpoint Sunday night.
Orlando police said the incident happened around 9 p.m. on Lake Baldwin Lane near Burke Street.
The suspect not only got away with his car, but his cash, phone and golf clubs, too.
Neil Tidwell parked a white Mercedes he was borrowing from his parents about 30 yards outside his friend's home.
"Got my stuff out of the passenger door, locked the car, then I saw out of my peripheral (vision) someone just running on the sidewalk,” Tidwell said. “Thought it was just a jogger, thought nothing of it."
Tidwell said the person running was a masked man with a silver handgun pointed right at him.
"It was frightening but it all happened so fast, it doesn't quite register,” Tidwell said. “I think I kind of froze."
Tidwell said the man demanded cash and his car keys, so he tossed over his wallet, keys and his work and personal phones.
"He saw both my phones on the ground, he asked what models they were,” he said. “I had an iPhone and a Samsung. He just wanted the iPhone."
Tidwell said the suspect also took a little less than $100 from him and left in his parents' car, with his golf clubs in the trunk.
"I heard a very aggressive knock at my door and thought to myself, that's weird," said Tidwell’s friend Michael Frye.
Tidwell ran inside his friend's house and called 911.
"I was just very much in a state of shock about what had just happened. So very caught off guard," Frye said.
Orlando police searched for hours and finally spotted the Mercedes near Metro West.
Investigators said the suspect sideswiped an officer's cruiser at the Timber Sound apartment complex and the driver got away again.
Police later found the damaged sedan abandoned, about 13 miles from Baldwin Park.
Tidwell said it was his parents' dream car in their retirement.
Police said they’re checking for evidence and it will be a few days before he gets the car back.
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