CARJACKER GETS STUCK, TAKES 2ND VEHICLE.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

PALMDALE - A carjacker stole an SUV from a Wal-Mart parking lot, got it stuck before it caught on fire, then stole the van of a Good Samaritan who followed him - shoving her children out of the van after he drove off.

The children were not hurt, sheriff's deputies said.

Paramedics treated the woman, who apparently was dragged for a short distance after the robber took her van, deputies said.

Sheriff's deputies were still looking Friday evening for the robber.

The carjacker stole a Jeep Cherokee around 11:20 a.m. Friday at the west Palmdale Wal-Mart and drove off, deputies said.

A woman who saw the robbery followed him as he drove up the street leading to Lockheed Martin's gated Plant 10, where he drove across a field and the vehicle got stuck.

The carjacker pulled the woman from her van, which had her children in it, and drove off, deputies said. He stopped and threw out the children, officials said.

The stuck SUV caught fire, igniting grass and brush in front of the Lockheed Martin plant. Los Angeles County and U.S. Air Force Plant 42 firefighters extinguished the flames after they burned about a quarter- acre.

``He high-centered the vehicle. The exhaust started the grass, the brush underneath the vehicle on fire,'' fire Capt. Joe Silva said.

The van was last seen heading east on Palmdale Boulevard past 47th Street East, deputies said.