Former City Controller Alan Butkovitz speaks out after being carjacked

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — A longtime city leader has become the latest victim of Philadelphia’s carjacking crisis.

Former city inspector Alan Butkovitz says it happened Tuesday night, shortly after he pulled up outside his home around 8 p.m

“And I turned around. There’s a guy with a ski mask and a gun in his hand and he’s banging on the window and he’s like, ‘Get the f**k out. Get the f**k out or I’ll kill you right now,'” Butkovitz recalled.

The longtime official admits it took him a few moments to realize his attacker was trying to steal his older model Ford Fusion.

He then got out of the car, gave the car thief his keys, and walked face down into the lane as instructed by his attacker.

“It was a strange feeling that you weren’t afraid of it. It was like, ‘This is how it all ends?’ And it’ll just be a bullet in the head or something, and I won’t even know about it,” Butkovitz said.

In the end, Butkovitz lost his vehicle but was uninjured.

He quickly called the police, who informed him that while this crime was alarming, it was not surprising.

“They told us there had been a lot of auto thefts in three or four blocks from that immediate area,” Butkovitz said.

According to the team at Action News Data Journalism, carjackings have dropped dramatically year-to-date after breaking a record year.

The 70-year-old politician says he feels like a very lucky man despite looking down the barrel of a gun and losing his car.

“I wasn’t really mad at him after that, oddly enough. Above all, I was grateful that it hadn’t gotten any worse,” said Butkovitz.

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