When Sandrine Miller-Bey’s black Toyota Avalon was bumped from behind at a stoplight in Northeast Washington on Tuesday, she thought nothing of getting out to check on the damage. The driver of the other car did the same.

But Miller-Bey said the young man simply stared down at her bumper while texting on his cellphone. The 37-year-old teacher of at-risk children started to scold him on the dangers of distracted driving before she realized “it was part of the scam.”

“He was keeping me busy while another man jumped out of the car, ran by me and got into my car and took off,” said Miller-Bey, recounting the traumatizing moments brought by a group D.C. police have labeled serial carjackers using the “bump and run” technique to steal cars.

Inside Miller-Bey’s new $40,000 car were her purse, money and credit cards, but also a MacBook Pro computer she had bought the day before, and an older laptop on which she had stored research for her PhD studies in culture and leadership. She had only backed up half her notes. “I lost nearly everything,” she said.

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