Another motorist targeted at a gas station

ATLANTA - The tactic of surprise is what a gunman wants to use when he is committing a carjacking.

It happened again in Home Park, a neighborhood in west Midtown. The driver, his name Ernest, pulled into his regular BP on Fourteenth Street. He stopped to buy candy. His passenger remained in the SUV.

In seconds, a black male with a red bandanna partially covering his face, jumped into the vehicle and flashed a weapon. He ordered the passenger out of the vehicle, but snatched an iPhone as well.

He took off in the vehicle. Ernest says he doesn't think he did anything wrong. He wasn't at the convenience store late at night. And with a passenger remaining in the vehicle, he didn't think he might be in jeopardy of becoming a crime victim.

One police commander says the thief took a chance many others don't want to take. Crime stats show most of the car-related crimes are smash and grabs because thieves realize that even should they get caught, the penalties handed down by judges are significantly less compared to an armed robbery conviction.