NEW ORLEANS — Stunning surveillance video shows several men trying to abduct a 34-year-old woman near Dauphine and Marigny streets Thursday around 11 p.m.
"Be smart. I mean, holy cow. Who would have guessed that would happen?" said John Joslin who lives on the corner where the incident happened.
"I anticipate things like this are possible at any given moment, but not an abduction," he said.
After being a crime victim himself on several occasions, Joslin installed surveillance cameras outside his home.
"I get more concerned about my safety," he said.
He checked his video after learning a woman was nearly kidnapped Thursday night. In the video, you see her walking on the sidewalk. Joslin learned the woman was walking to her car after working on Frenchmen Street that night. Video shows a car pass the woman on Dauphine Street, then pull over near Marigny Street. As the woman walks past, two men jump out of the car. One grabs her and tries to force her inside the car. The woman holds her hands up over the car to prevent the men from being able to forcer her in. In video from another neighbor, you can hear her yell 'No! and Stop!' as she fights to get away.
After about 10 seconds, the men get back in the car and drive the wrong way down a one-way without the woman. According to NOPD, they sped off after seeing approaching headlights, but no other cars are visible in the surveillance video.
"It's terrifying that we cant just walk to our car. It's very eerily reminiscent to New Orleans pre-Katrina," said Claire Newman, whose surveillance video captured video where you hear the incident. "Someone trying to put them into their car and kidnap them off a city street in a community is very, very terrifying."
These neighbors said they are used to crime, but still stunned by what happened outside their homes.
"We've gotten to know all the police, they know we have the video cameras so they come here first, there's just not enough of them. They do the best they can, but they don’t have the resources they need and my husband and I talk like, we love New Orleans, we want to stay here, but we're concerned," Joslin said.
NOPD said they are investigating this as an isolated incident. No arrests have been made. The investigation is active and ongoing.
Anyone with information that can assist in this investigation is asked to call NOPD Fifth District detectives at 504-658-6050 or to call anonymously to Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111.