Minnesota

Chicagoans Step Up to Help Minnesota Woman Carjacked in Chatham

Donna Hart didn’t know she’d have much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving just days after she was held up at gunpoint outside of her family’s home.

Hart drove in from Minnesota and on Tuesday, when she went to grab some of her belongings from her car in Chatham, two men approached her with a gun.

They demanded her keys and purse. She tried her best not to panic.

“I had to stay calm because I didn’t want to be killed over a car,” she said.

She did just that as she walked back into the home on South Wabash.

“My whole focus was, they’re not going in this house," Hart said. "I didn’t want them in the house to hurt my family, so whatever they was going to do, they was going to do to me.”

Police found the car and it now sits in an impound lot.

Hart doesn’t have her keys, she says, and it will cost $300 to get in to the car.

But, that’s where some kind-hearted Chicagoans come in.

Activists Dawn Valenti and Andrew Holmes chipped in a complete stranger, Chris Harris also stepped forward to help.

His daughter was carjacked last year.

"I just hope that she realizes that she can come home and she can be happy,” he told NBC 5.

“I wanted her to know that this city does care and that there’s still some good in this city,” Valenti said.

While holding a press conference, a woman passed by and had to stop.

Antoinette bradley- passerby donated to victim

“Leaving church, took a little turn down this road, never turned down this road and here you guys were standing with the young lady I wanted to bless," passerby Antoinette Bradley said. "So, I have $200 here and I wanted to just bless you with this because it hurts my heart.”

Strangers helping strangers, a true display of giving thanks.

A GoFundMe has been set up to continue helping Hart.

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