Carjacking victim speaks out, suspects still on the run

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Posted: 07/30/2012

By: Laura Harris

LAKELAND, Fla. -

It was a police chase that spanned two counties Sunday night.

From Tampa, two suspects drove through a police barricade, escaped from the view of a police helicopter, and got all the way to Lakeland. That's where, police say, they stole a car from 25-year-old Katelyn Bennett and her mother Sunday night.

Katelyn had just moved from Louisiana to a house on Davis Street in Lakeland two weeks ago.

She says her family just finished renovating the house when she and her mother hopped into her dad's truck.

At that moment, she says, the night took an awful turn. All she heard as they pulled out the driveway was, "Get out the car! Get out the car!"

Katelyn says she was stunned, as she relived the moments that she still can't believe happened.

"She went to go put on her seatbelt and when she did, this black male walked up to the car and said ' get out of the car,'" Katelyn says she froze. But her mom got out.

"She turned off the car and got out of the car with the keys, because she wasn't just going to give them the car. So she tried to take off and he grabbed her again saying, 'give me the [expletive] keys!!'"

She says it was then that her mom, 43-year-old Lorri Teschner, ran into the house screaming.

Around that time, her dad, Dayrel Teschner ran outside. He then dove head first into the truck's window. The suspect moved suddenly and her dad fell out.

Although escaping with no serious injuries, his black eye has left a reminder of his heroics.

The same truck her Dad tried to save Sunday night was found just a couple miles down the road at a BP gas station on Wabash Monday morning. The Polk County Sheriff's Office tells us the investigation is still active as they try to connect the dots from the start of the incident.

Tampa Police say they tried pulling the suspects over Sunday night during a routine traffic stop, but they led police on a chase through Hillsborough County into Polk County.

Katelyn says she doesn't think the suspect that accosted her and her mother had a weapon. She made it out without a scratch, while her mother had a few cuts from the suspect trying to pull her out of the car.

The suspects are still on the run.