A Shawnee woman who was putting groceries in her car at a local market thwarted a would-be carjacker with help from her sister and a witness by grabbing a set of handcuffs from her rearview mirror to make a citizen's arrest.

A Shawnee woman who was putting groceries in her car at a local market thwarted a would-be carjacker with help from her sister and a witness by grabbing a set of handcuffs from her rearview mirror to make a citizen’s arrest.

The suspect, Daniel Ray Dodson, 34, Newalla, is now jailed on a robbery complaint in the Pottawatomie County Public Safety Center, where he is being held on $25,000 bond. Formal charges have not been filed.

Toni Jones had just finished shopping with her sister at Homeland on North Harrison Street when she was approached.

She had started her Buick Century and was standing on the driver’s side of the car after putting the rest of her groceries in the back seat. “I glanced up and saw him coming right at me,” she said, adding the suspect reached over the car door and grabbed the neck of her shirt in an attempt to “sling” her away from the car and take it.

But Jones fought back.

“I said to him, ‘Oh, h--- no, you are not getting my car,’” she recalled as she spoke about the events that unfolded.

Her sister, who was on the passenger side, came to help her in the struggle as they grabbed him and yelled for someone to help and call 911.

That’s when a male shopper, who Jones called “an angel,” grabbed the suspect and put him in a neck hold, she said.

Jones, who said her step dad was a sheriff’s deputy in another county for many years, had a set of handcuffs on her rearview mirror and quickly grabbed them.

She told the suspect, ‘You are under a citizen’s arrest,’” she said, and she and her sister handcuffed him. They told the suspect he was staying put until Shawnee police officers arrived.

Jones, who did suffer a cut on her hand during the incident, said the suspect “gave it a good fight” to get her away from the car, but she wasn’t budging.

Jones, who has had those handcuffs on her rearview mirror for many years now, said they came in quite handy.

And while everything happened fast, Jones said she’s just thankful it was her and not someone else, adding the suspect could have targeted her grandparents or someone else’s.

“It could have been anybody — thank God it was me,” she said.

Jones, who said she was raised to always watch her surroundings and to take nothing for granted, believes she acted in the best way possible under the circumstances.

But she didn’t get to thank the other unknown shopper before he left the scene.

“God put an angel there and he just vanished,” she said. “I didn’t get to thank him for his help.”

The police report, completed by Officer Robert Barton, shows Dodson told officers he was trying to get to Lake Thunderbird and needed a ride to get there.

Shawnee Police Sgt. Dan Shumaker said Dodson has a history of being arrested for felonies.

“The suspect of a vehicle theft crime got more than what he bargained for,” Shumaker said, adding the victim, with the help of a family member and a witness, stopped the suspect from stealing the car and also handcuffed him in the process.

Case reports will be turned over to the district attorney’s office for consideration of any formal charges.