"As soon as I turned around I knew exactly what was happening and I thought, 'You're not doing this'."
The man entered the driver's side of the vehicle and closed the door - but he was not fast enough for Ms Jarif.
"He jumped in the car and closed the door but luckily the window was down because I smoke and I had had a cigarette on the way home.
"I could tell he was in a rush and he couldn't work out how to drive it straight away.
"So I ran to the window and started punching him in the head."
She tried to wrestle the keys from the ignition and despite the man's attempts to stop her, she managed to successfully remove them from the car.
"I pulled them out and locked him in."
The man opened the door and began to approach Ms Jarif as if he was going to attack her.
"It was pretty frightening, when he came up to me and tried to take me on I was ready to give it my all.
"He must have seen how serious I was and he just started to run, and he ran away."
Mt Wellington Police attended the scene with dog handlers but were unable to track the offender. Ms Jarif said the attack appeared premeditated as both her father and partner has removed the cone from the driveway on their way out that morning, but it had been replaced.
"My dad went to mosque at 5am and my partner went to work at 6.30am, and both of them moved it but it was put back like he had been targeting us for a while, waiting for me.
"I have lived in this neighbourhood for 28 years and I just want people to know what's happening, what's going on and what people are doing." Izaac Cooper, 19, was parked nearby waiting for his workplace to open and witnessed the attempted hijacking.
He confirmed Ms Jarif's version of events and said the offender "definitely planned it".
"I saw him walk past a couple of times before she pulled into the driveway, he was definitely waiting around. I saw him jump in the car before she ran back and wrestled him out ... then he took off down a driveway."
