St. Louis Carjacker Stymied by Stick Shift

Craig P. Jewell / Getty Images

If you’re going to steal a car, you’d better know how to drive it.  An attempted car-jacking went south last weekend after the perpetrator couldn’t get the vehicle in gear, prompting the victim to offer his attacker a ride.

After robbing a man of $24 at gunpoint in a Saint Louis University parking lot, an as-yet unidentified criminal attempted to hop into his victim’s car and drive away, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes. But instead of fleeing to safety, the robber reportedly could not figure out how to work the car’s manual transmission — so the understanding victim  (who was still faced with a firearm) offered to drive him to his destination.

(More: Not-So-Smooth Criminal: Thief Steals Safe, Leaves Cash)

After the victim dropped off his passenger near a park, “the robber thanked the man and exited the car,” the Post-Dispatch reports.

The Associated Press reporters that a police investigation is underway, but no arrests have been made.

More: Girl Scouts Punch Thief, Jump on Car in Cookie-Cash Robbery

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Would You Buy Obama’s Old Car for $1 Million?

eBay / cubfanatic23

A typical 2005 Chrysler 300C, fully loaded and in pristine condition, is expected to fetch up to $19,142 on the market, according to Kelley Blue Book, the authority on used-car prices. But what if the vehicle had been leased by none other than the President of the United States of America? An eBay seller is hoping that detail will justify a $980,000 price hike.

Lisa Czibor, a seasoned eBay car seller based near Chicago, is pulling out all the stops to prove that Barack Obama once piloted the grey 300C she has listed for sale on behalf of its owner Tim O’Boyle. She even posted a photograph of the car’s title written in Obama’s name. But the most shocking detail associated with the sale: the price. Owning then-senator Obama’s ride will cost a cool $1 million.

(PHOTOS: Obama’s First Two Years: An Inside View)

The buyer also has to pay in full within 10 days of purchase. Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that the auction, which closes February 1, has been live for 11 days with nary a bid.

But Czibor is confident the car is worth the budget-busting sum. And that’s not just because of the car’s low mileage (only 20,800 miles over the course of seven years) or its maxed-out options, including leather seats, a sunroof and a navigation system. Obama put more than 19,000 miles on the car driving around Chicago. And the listing cites a host of other cars with famous owners that have fetched record sums on the auction block, including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s 1977 Peugeot, which sold for $2.35 million (£1.5 million) in March 2011. That money was donated to charity, though, while Obama’s ride was put on the market by a private seller.

Obama got rid of the 300C in July 2007 as he launched his presidential campaign. He traded in the Chrysler – which has a 5.7-liter Hemi V8 engine – for a 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid after taking flak for driving the guzzler while pressuring Detroit to build more fuel-efficient cars.

The 300C was put up for auction on eBay in late 2008 to coincide with Obama’s inauguration. Back then, the minimum bid was $100,000, which seems like a bargain compared to the current price. But O’Boyle, the owner, had to take down the auction because it was overrun by fake bidders who rocketed the price to $100 million, MSNBC reports. Four years later, O’Boyle recruited the help of Czibor, and with a few security measures to ensure that only serious buyers can bid, the car has been listed again. But is the famous former owner enough to justify a 5,000% markup? It doesn’t even get good gas mileage, after all.

PHOTOS: Barack Obama: The Best TIME Photographs

Nick is a writer and producer for TIME with a penchant for breaking news and viral videos. His work is often found at the intersection of celebrity and technology.

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Car Frozen in Place Is Chiseled Out With a Hammer. And a Blowtorch.

A car in New York City covered in a little ice. Via CBS New York

How cold and miserable is New York City these days? Behold, the Great Frozen Audi.

Sometime between Friday and Sunday night this weekend, subfreezing temperatures, passing cars splashing water and a busted underground pipe created a perfect East Village storm in New York City and virtually encased a man’s car in ice.

(More on TIME.com: Read about the recent snowstorms hitting the East Coast)

The incredible photo made the front page of the New York Post on Tuesday, and city workers told the Post that cars splashed icy water from the busted pipe onto the Audi for 48 straight hours.

After some grueling work with the aid of city workers, the car was freed. The only real damage was a busted back window.

(More on TIME.com: See pictures of a blizzard slamming the Northeast)

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82-Year-Old Woman Gets $1,100 Speeding Ticket

Getty Images

Is this a sign of the times? Back in NewsFeed’s day it was the darn kids who were always speeding. (via KVAL.com)

In Oregon an 82-year-old woman was stopped for driving over the speed limit and given a staggering $1,103 speeding ticket. The woman, Marcia Brandon, was apparently running late for an appointment and was going 110 mph–more than double the speed limit of 55 mph.

This case seems to be an anomaly, however. A speeding senior not only goes against the stereotype of elderly drivers, but also the statistics. According to the site Traffic Ticket Secrets, drivers between the ages of 17 and 24 receive the most speeding tickets out of all drivers.

Though that might be because older drivers are more crafty when it comes to getting out of a ticket–like the man who would simply wear a monkey mask while speeding.

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Man Allegedly Steals Chinese Delivery Car, Continues Dropping Off Orders

(WEST HARTFORD, Conn.) — Police in Connecticut say a man stole a car used to deliver Chinese food and continued dropping off orders so he could keep the customers’ money.

Keith Hinds was charged on Friday with larceny, possession of less than half an ounce of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and other drug charges. It was not known Monday morning if the 45-year-old Hinds is represented by a lawyer.

West Hartford police received a call from a Chinese food delivery driver reporting that his car had been stolen after he left it idling to run into a school. The driver also called his boss so customers could be notified that their orders were stolen with the car. Police say one of the orders was delivered after the car was taken.

Hinds was held on $5,000 bond.

MORE: Man Arrested for Accepting a Good Deal at Car Dealership

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Ditching the Daisy: Will the New VW Beetle Rev Men’s Engines?

Courtesy Volkswagen

With a laundry list of testosterone-friendly design and technology changes, Volkswagen is looking to bring a neglected demographic into the Beetle owner’s circle: dudes. (via Techland)

They’ve cast off the cutesy and made room for the macho. The iconic driving machine gets a facelift to become a little rougher around the edges – but is its look still too female-friendly?

(More on TIME.com: See the most exciting cars of 2010)

VW popped the old bubble roof and opted for a sleek rounded-off top.  Designers swapped in a couple of fierce-looking LED headlights and stretched the car slightly to give it a “powerful appearance with muscular tension,” the company said in a statement. Most masculine of all are the Beetle’s wheels. It rolls on eye-catching 10-spoke wheels that span 19 inches. All the plain Jane details – right down to the circular tail lights, have been scrapped in favor of more futuristic features. But still, it’s no pickup truck.

In the redesign, Volkswagen says it looked to its legacy. The original Beetle was driven by men and women alike, with no regard for gender-biased details. The generational shift brought a stark preference of pink versus blue, and the New Beetle found itself most attractive to a female crowd. The car’s girly aura was cemented with the installation of a flower vase on the dash. While that daisy, which has become a symbol of the Beetle itself, has now withered and replaced by a sleek instrument panel, can they transform the entire Beetle’s image with just a bit of plastic surgery?

So, will we see more men driving Beetles?  It appears we’ll find out this fall, when the car hits showrooms.

Head to our friends at Techland to see the nuts and bolts of the car.

(More on TIME.com: See the 50 worst cars of all time)

Nick is a writer and producer for TIME with a penchant for breaking news and viral videos. His work is often found at the intersection of celebrity and technology.

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Car Left in Parking Lot Takes a Mysterious 724-mile Ride

A couple returned to New York from a trip to California and discovered that their car—which had been parked in the long-term lot near JFK airport—had 724 extra miles on the odometer. Which raises the question—what exactly does your car do in long-term car parks?

Since the vehicle was also playing a CD at full volume when the couple, Mimi and Ulrich Gunthart, started it, the logical explanation is that someone borrowed the car for a joyride/road trip (724 miles is roughly the distance from New York City to Pittsburgh and back).

But the manager for the parking lot said that a look over the inventory logs revealed nothing unusual and that they’ve never had complaints in the past. Sure, it’s feasible that the car was actually broken into and then returned, but we prefer to think of the alternate scenario: Transformers actually do exist.  (via the Associated Press)

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