But the mother protested, and told him they “needed their car.”

“People ask me how I was able to talk him out of it,” the mother said, still in disbelief.

Gordner complied, and asked them instead to drive him to Northumberland, and pull by a gasoline station on Route 11, near Duke Street, where he jumped from the vehicle.

Meanwhile, the woman’s mother was still at the mall.

“She thought we went home and left her there,” the woman said.

Though she feared for her and her daughter’s life at the time, the woman said once it was all over, she began to believe that he wouldn’t have really hurt them.

“He didn’t seem like a nasty kid,” the woman said. “I don’t think he’s a criminal. I think he needed money.”

Regardless, the effects of the holdup remain.

“This bothers her very much,” the woman said of her daughter, a college student who had just arrived home for the summer. “I’m fine. I’m a tough person. But she’s not a tough person at all.”

For the first two nights after the kidnapping, the woman said Ralpho Township police patrolled near their home.

At 10 a.m. the day after the kidnapping, a woman called authorities to report she had seen Gordner sitting outside the mall the day of the carjacking. The unidentified woman said she let him use her cell phone to call for a ride.

The number he called was tracked to Gordner’s former girlfriend, Jillian Smith, who confirmed getting a call from him and seeing him that day at about 1:30 p.m., a police report said.

Smith described Gordner as wearing the same clothing as the victims reported.

Police put together a photo lineup, and Alexandra Moratelli identified Gordner. A week ago today, police asked the U.S. Marshal Service to help find and apprehend Gordner.

Gordner surrendered to Williamsport-based U.S. Marshals in Lewisburg at 9:45 a.m. Thursday.