Woman says man jumped in car at gas pump ... so she sprayed him with gas

The unexpected encounter happened Thursday at 8 a.m. at a gas station in south Fulton County, WSB-TV reported.

Gabrielle Halford told Tyisha Fernandes of WSB-TV her car was turned off and she was holding her keys when a stranger got into her car and tried to drive off in the push-to-start vehicle.

"I was just standing here just watching the gas pump and all of a sudden I just felt like some motion in my car, like it was swaying from side to side," she said.

Halford said the man was about to get away until she quickly jumped into action.

"I was spraying him just like this, and he eventually got out the car," she said. "I took the gas nozzle and I just started spraying him with the gas, and he eventually got out of my car, and he left."

The victim said she was completely caught off guard.

“I didn’t know what it was, so I just happened to look and it was a black male in my driver’s seat. I have a push-to-start car, so he was trying to push the button to start my car,” she said.

The woman said the would-be thief was in such a hurry, he left a shoe behind. Police took it as evidence.

"There were people around here just looking, just sitting in their cars looking, no one came for help except for this one lady. She came to my rescue," Halford said.

The victim is hoping police can catch the man from surveillance video that captured what happened.