The Las Vegas valley has seen an alarming number of violent carjackings in recent months and experts say a criminal often steals a car by force while threatening to harm or kill the driver.
Donavin Britt, who runs Las Vegas Krav Maga and Mixed Martial Arts, trains people in self-defense to escape violent situations.
Britt says carjackings are typically a crime of opportunity. As people can be distracted on their phones or forget to lock their car doors and those parked in isolated areas are easy targets for criminals.
Carjackers usually look for possible victims in dark parking garages, residential driveways, intersections with stop lights, even highway exit ramps, according to safety experts.
They also say if a carjacker threatens you with a weapon to give up your car because your life is worth more.
However, Britt says if that person is physically trying to harm you, he says you must fight back.
If a carjacking happens to you make eye contact with your attacker and pay close attention to as many physical characteristics of the carjacker as possible so that you can provide a report to the police.