Crime & Safety

Nanny Nearly Carjacked at La Jolla Country Day School

A 20-year-old woman is accused of trying to steal a car with a child inside at La Jolla Country Day School on Wednesday.

Originally posted 1 p.m. Thursday. Updated 1:05 p.m.

A suspected would-be carjacker who couldn't get the car into gear, and then couldn't run away, was arrested Wednesday after a failed attempt to take a white Mercedes with a child inside at La Jolla Country Day School.

A nanny had just dropped off an 8-year-old around 8:36 a.m. Wednesday, and still had a 4-year-old inside the car in the parking lot, when the suspect pulled her out of the car, San Diego police Lt. Kevin Mayer said.

San Diego police Officer Frank Cali said the suspect, 20-year-old Jennifer Gomez, grabbed the driver's arm and tried to take the car but was detained by a school security guard until police arrived. The 66-year-old nanny had put the car into park, and put on the emergency brake, but the vehicle's door was unlocked, Mayer said.

Another motorist and a groundskeeper both came over to the car, yelling at the suspect—who couldn't seem to figure out how to do anything beside rev the engine. The security guard had the woman sit on the curb until police came after she tried to flee, he said. 

Staff members at the school said the woman appeared to be under the influence of drugs or another substance, said Chris Lavin, the school's director of communications and marketing.

The suspect, who was captured on the school's video surveillance, walked into the parking lot from the street and approached the woman in the car, who had just dropped a child off for tennis camp, Lavin said. The school's security guard, an unarmed retired San Diego police officer, was summoned from a few hundred yards away and immediately detained the woman, he said.

"It was an odd incident," said Lavin, adding that a school committee is coincidentally set to meet Friday to review its security procedures.

"We're always looking to strike the right balance between access and safety," Lavin said.

The school, on Genesee Avenue, neighbors the San Diego Police Department's Northern Division substation.

Gomez was booked into Las Colinas Detention Facility in Santee just after 2 p.m. Wednesday on a felony attempted carjacking charge. Her bail was set at $75,000 and arraignment is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Friday, according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department website.
 


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