Miracle Escape: Woman Jumps From Car's Trunk

Feb. 15, 2008— -- A 26-year-old woman forced into the trunk of her car at gunpoint escaped by jumping from the moving vehicle.

Charity Gibson remembered the emergency latch in her trunk and jumped when the carjacker slowed down, telling herself she had to get out before he got on the highway. Miraculously, she escaped with only a small scratch.

"God really took care of me," Gibson told "Good Morning America" today, standing in front of the car she escaped from.

She said she remembered the latch because when she first bought the car she had read the entire manual.

Gibson was parking her car in Dayonta Beach, Fla., on Feb. 12 at about 5:30 p.m. when she saw a man in a hood and sunglasses, who looked nervous, approaching.

"As I saw him walking up, I knew that I couldn't back up. There was a wall in front of me. I couldn't go anywhere … there was just not enough time so I got out. Then I saw a gun pointed directly at me and my hands just immediately went up," she said.

The man began yelling and grabbing her purse and keys, she said. The next thing she knew he forced her into the trunk of the car and drove out of the garage.

Gibson was stuck in the trunk for what she says seemed like an eternity. While inside she said, "I was praying and was thinking, 'God, you're the one that's going to help me.' And he did."

She waited for the car to slow down to what she guessed was 15 miles or less and then yanked the trunk's glow-in-the-dark emergency latch, which she recalled from reading the car's manual.

"After I bought the car, I determined to know as much about the car as I could … I was just looking through my car, looking through the manual, and I noticed it [the latch]," Gibson said.

When she came out of the trunk, she saw another car nearby, but wasn't sure if it was someone who was with the thief or not.

"I couldn't identify if it was male or female. But I saw the person driving the car, and I just looked at him. I wanted to see what they were going to do: if they were going to stop and help me or if they were going to drive on by. Upon their reaction, I took off running, because they just started to go around me," she said.