HORN LAKE, Miss. (WREG) — A Southaven, Mississippi man said all he could do was hold on and pray after he saw a teenager jump in his car and try to drive away from a fast food restaurant.

But the young thief got more than he bargained for when that man refused to let him get away easily. 

“When I was on the windshield, and we were going down the road, I basically just prayed. That’s all I did. And it worked out in my favor, not his, because I got the car back,” Darrian Cummings said.

Cummings, 22, says he was picking up a DoorDash order at a Zaxby’s on Interstate Boulevard at Goodman Road just after 9 Wednesday night.

He left his car running while he stopped in — for no more than a minute, he says — when a customer came running in. 

“Someone yelled out, ‘Someone’s car just got stolen!’ And I ran outside, and basically, I seen him stealing the car, and I ran to the stop light and pulled on the door handle, and he locked the doors,” Cummings said.

But here’s where things get crazy. Cummings says he couldn’t just let the thief get away, so he jumped into action — and onto the hood of the car to try and stop him. 

The thief kept driving. Cummings had no choice but to hold on tight. 

We timed it — it took a full minute and a half to drive from Zaxby’s to the spot on Interstate Boulevard where Cummings says he finally lost his grip. The speed limit is 45 mph, and Cummings says the driver was going even faster than that.

A day later, he says he feels lucky that both he and his car escaped the ordeal with just a few scratches. 

Police were able to catch up with the thief outside of Hardee’s and take him into custody. 

The suspect was only 14 years old, so police are not releasing his identity.