Pro Tip: Don't Steal A Stick If You Can't Drive A Stick
The Huffington Post  |  By David Moye
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Posted: 06/19/2015 1:05 pm EDT Updated: 06/19/2015 1:59 pm EDT

Yes, it's happened once again. Something you've read and laughed about every time it occurs and wonder how in the world anyone can be so ... er ... inept? You'd think these people would get a life, but thankfully (at least for us) they don't, and we can sit back and marvel at their stupidity.

Providence, Utah police report that Mr. Alexander Katz, 19, and his girlfriend decided to steal a car. They found one that was sitting all by itself with the keys in the ignition, so they hopped in.

Mr. Katz then apparently looked in vain for the gear selection lever and the usual "D" for "Drive" in a little window somewhere. It just wasn't there. It seems the car was not an automatic but was operated by using what us older folks would call a "stick shift" transmission, something Mr. Katz apparently was not at all familiar with.

Police say that Katz and his girlfriend were able to get the car to go a few yards into a nearby supermarket parking lot but no further, where they jumped out, ran to the gas station next door and called a taxi to pick them up. (I can't help but wonder if the phone had been a dial-type instead of push-button, would Mr. Katz still be there?) 

YOU STOPPED HERE


. in a man tried to steal a car, then had to call a cab after he couldn't figured out how to use a stick shift.

Officers in Logan said they arrested Alexander Katz on Tuesday after the 19-year-old and his underage girlfriend allegedly stole a car with the keys still inside, the Deseret News reports.

Police said Katz' girlfriend knew how to drive a stick and attempted to walk him through the process.


"I'm not 100 percent certain why she doesn't just get around and get in the driver's seat so they can take the car and use it," Police Chief Gary Jensen said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Eventually, the pair ditched the car at a supermarket parking lot in Providence. They fled on foot to a nearby gas station where they called a cab, HJNews.com reports.

When the duo saw police, they ran off again.

Katz's girlfriend was soon arrested. Police said she told them that she and Katz had started the evening looking for Benadryl before deciding to steal a car, according to the website.

Katz was arrested a few hours later after police found him using information he had given the taxi company, according to Newser.

Katz was arrested on suspicion of transferring a stolen vehicle, a second-degree felony, and failure to stop at the command of law enforcement, KSL.com reports. His teenage companion was released to her parents. Her case was transferred to juvenile court.