LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB)-- Latonya Kennedy snapped pictures at the beginning of a fun morning at Algonquin Park with her grandkids and a soon-to-be nephew. Their smiling faces didn't last long.
"I planned to take them all out to lunch," said Kennedy.
But as the kids were swinging and sliding on Wednesday morning, she noticed a group of young men eyeing her from a nearby pavilion. She wondered what was up.
"Got a real funny feeling in my spirit," she said.
Kennedy said a couple of the guys had been checking out her Nissan too. She made the decision that it was time to get the kids and go.
"I see the boys approaching out of the corner of my eye, and I think uh oh," explained Kennedy.
She said she ended up meeting one of them on the sidewalk.
"He stops and says 'do you have a dollar?'" Kennedy explained. "I said, 'honey, I'm out here with my grandchildren, I have nothing on me. No money. Nothing. I'm sorry.' Before I could say sorry, he snatched my keys."
In the minutes that followed, Kennedy explained she was taunted and called foul names, as she called 911.
Seconds felt like hours, and then one of the young men jumped into the driver's seat, and threw it in reverse. Kennedy grabbed her purse, banged up her knees and got back to the kids just in time.
"I grab them, pull them back, and then he proceeds to try and hit all of us," Kennedy said.
Kennedy told WDRB, the young man behind the wheel missed them by inches.
The rest of the group booked it on foot, and that was the last time Kennedy saw her car.
A walk in the park, it was not. The Louisville grandmother now has the tough task of explaining to young, innocent kids the realities of this world.
"Last night I didn't sleep well, and it was because of the screams of my grandchildren, and I keep hearing that," Kennedy said.
She hasn't seen her Nissan since, and a police report was filed.
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