NEW LONDON, CT — A Niantic woman tried to carjack a woman with kids in the vehicle in a Family Dollar parking lot, police said.

In the middle of the afternoon on Jan. 2, police said, Lauren Curtis, 29, forced her way into a parked car at the Ocean Avenue store and demanded both the car and money. The mother handed over her purse "safety of her children," police said. Curtis took off but police soon found her on Orchard Street. They said she had two knives. Curtis of 76A Old Black Point Road in Niantic was charged with first-degree robbery, attempt to commit robbery by carjacking, first-degree reckless endangerment, carrying a dangerous weapon and second-degree breach of peace.

She's being held on half a million-dollar bond. This is not the first time Curtis has been charged with robbery.

Court records show in 2012, she was found guilty of robbery.

And in 2013, according to a report in the News Times, and based on judicial records, the then 22-year-old listed as being from Danbury, "carjacked a sport utility vehicle at knife-point outside a gas station, crashed it, and commandeering another vehicle after breaking into a residence."

Police told the paper that Curtis came up to two women inside a car at a gas station, "opened the driver's side door and threatened" the driver with a knife telling them to get out "or I am going to kill you."

Curtis was found guilty and given a combined 23 years in prison on all charges including first-degree robbery. She was released after serving five years.