A man besieged by an outraged group of older women when he carjacked an 80-year-old woman at a Wheat Ridge antiques store was sentenced to more than eight years in prison Wednesday.

Joseph Albert Ferguson, 21, and his stepbrother, Julius Suarez, 21, may have thought the elderly victim would be an easy mark when Ferguson demanded her keys and pulled her out of the driver’s seat of her car in front of the Stage Stop Antiques store on West 44th Avenue

But upon hearing the victim yelling, several other women ran out of the store and surrounded the car, pounding on it as Ferguson backed out, said Pam Russell, spokesperson for the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office.

Ferguson hit the victim with the car door, knocking her to the ground as he and Suarez made their escape as he drove away. He wrecked the car a short distance from the store, and both men were arrested.

Jefferson County District Attorney Scott Storey applauded the sentence for sending a strong warning to others who might consider crimes against senior citizens.

He stopped short of advocating the citizen’s arrest attempted by the women in the antiques store.

"This is a success story in that no one was seriously injured, but any time you are approached by someone who looks suspicious and asked for your car keys, it’s a good idea to give them up," Storey said.

Ferguson pleaded guilty to aggravated motor vehicle theft, robbery, driving under restraint and assault on an at-risk adult.

Suarez was sentenced to four years probation with mental-health treatment after pleading guilty earlier to aggravated motor vehicle theft.