DETROIT -- With her 6-year-old daughter, Ashleye, in the back seat, Deborah Kemp wasn't going to let the man steal her car without a fight.
Ms. Kemp, 34, was dragged on her knees for a quarter-mile while she clung to her open car door and the steering wheel.
"I wasn't trying to be a hero," the Detroit woman said. "I was concerned about my baby. . . . That was part of me in that car."
Although police said Ms. Kemp did the wrong thing in fighting the carjacker, she survived with only ripped pants and bloodied knees. The child was not injured.
The suspect sustained head injuries and broken legs. Ms. Kemp said she pulled him from the car and beat him.
The ordeal started about 7:45 a.m. Monday at a Detroit gas station. Ms. Kemp had pumped $10 in gas and left the keys in the car as she went inside to pay.
Just as she returned, a man slid behind the wheel and took off. Ms. Kemp grabbed the driver's door and steering wheel.
As the car moved -- never over 30 mph -- Ms. Kemp and the carjacker traded blows. She grabbed her anti-theft, steering-wheel lock under the front seat and hit him on the head and arm.
She pulled him out of the car, which then went out of control and smashed into a restaurant, breaking a gas line. That's when the child -- restrained by a seat belt -- woke up.
Ms. Kemp said she beat the carjacker with the anti-theft device while he apologized and begged her to stop.
The suspect was in stable condition Monday at Detroit Receiving Hospital. He will be charged with felony unarmed robbery, abduction and carjacking, police said.
Police advise that if someone tries to take the car, let him -- even with a child in the back seat.
Joseph Kaptur, an officer at the Crime Prevention Division of the Detroit Police Department, said: "In most cases, the last thing he wants is to be charged with kidnapping as well."