Judith spends most of the morning shopping at the mall. She stops at the food court for a light lunch, then shops some more.

By early afternoon she’s ready to call it quits for the day and heads for the parking lot. She loads her packages onto the back seat then settles in behind the wheel. First she selects an appropriate CD to play on the drive home.

Judith starts backing slowly when she notices a large piece of paper stuck to the rear window. Thinking it must be another one of those pesky advertisements, she stops, gets out of her car and walks back to remove the paper from the glass.

At that instant a man jumps out from between two cars parked next to Judith’s car — jumps in her car and drives off.

Meanwhile, Judith is at the rear of her car watching a stranger take possession of her car. Unbelievable! Perhaps, but this is a well executed plan. In less than 15 seconds after she gets out of her car a carjacker is driving it away.

Not only does Judith lose her car and all of its contents, including her purse, wallet, house keys, and a half dozen credit and ID cards.

So fast does all this happen that she really doesn’t have much of a description to give the police. The driver was young and wore jeans.

What was on the paper? Just a flyer from the parking lot. The whole point of the paper is to "sucker" the driver into stopping the car to clear the rear window. The scam is simple but clever. It worked this time and it’s worked in other cases.

What should you do if it happens to you? A paper left on your rear window has to be suspicious. That’s not where advertisers put signs. Do not get out of your car leaving the motor running. Drive to a place where there are lots of other people. Stop the car, turn off the engine, take the keys with you — and then clear the rear window.