‘I was very lucky,’ man says after carjacking

He has his car back, but not his peace of mind.

Norman Thomas was waiting in the parking lot of the Boynton Beach Mall for his wife, who was being dropped off, when two young men armed with a handgun approached his Toyota Camry.

“They didn’t say anything except, ‘Get out, get out!’ and ‘Walk away, walk away!” the retired banker, 66, said Wednesday.

The carjacking happened Tuesday about 9:40 p.m. outside the Macy’s store in the mall, at 801 Congress Ave., said Stephanie Slater, spokeswoman for Boynton Beach Police.

Thomas, of West Palm Beach, said he was busy reading on his phone when the teenagers approached his car.

“The lesson I learned is I have to be a lot more aware of my surroundings,” Thomas said. “It was dark and the parking lot was pretty much empty.”

He is thankful his wife and her ride did not arrive at the same time the robbery was happening.

“All I could do was walk away as fast as I could, and they let me do that,” he said of the suspects who he said were “very young. I learned a lesson, and I was very lucky.”

Described as being 18-years-old or younger, the teenagers were wearing dark clothing. One had medium length dreadlocks, police said.

The Toyota was driven out of the mall parking lot onto Congress Avenue. They got about two miles away when police caught up with them on West Boynton Beach Boulevard near the Interstate 95 overpass.

“The suspects got out of the car and jumped the guardrail, running down the embank-