Brian J. Vlassich

A mother testified how she came face to face with an attempted carjacker who tried to get onto her young daughter's school bus in Butler.

Heather Reibel was no ordinary victim.

“I grabbed him by the chest and his coat,” she recounted, “and threw him backward.”

Reibel's testimony came Monday at Brian J. Vlassich's preliminary hearing.

District Judge William Fullerton ordered Vlassich, 37, of Butler to stand trial on charges he tried to rob the owners of two vehicles Feb. 2 before he eventually stole an unoccupied vehicle.

At a separate hearing Monday, Fullerton held the defendant for court on charges that he tried to break into the Butler County Prison earlier the day of the alleged crime spree,

He remains in the prison on $105,000 bail.

City police allege Vlassich apparently by chance targeted the 33-year-old Reibel, of Butler, about 12:20 p.m. at Liberty and West Wayne streets. She was there waiting for her 6-year-old daughter's school bus.

She was in her car with the doors locked when an unknown man tried to open the driver's door.

“I said, 'What do you want?'” Reibel told prosecutor Richard Bosco, a county assistant district attorney. “He said, “Can I drive your car?' I told him, 'No, that's not going to happen.'”

The man then walked around the vehicle, she said, and unsuccessfully tried to open the passenger side door. She called 911.

Find out what happened next by reading Tuesday's Butler Eagle.