Damn. Wish I had (or used to have) a Mercedes-Benz ... or a job.

A Mercedes-Benz belonging to the deputy executive director of the Jersey City Incinerator Authority was stolen by men believed to be armed as he was preparing to leave the JCIA facility last Friday night, he said.

?I have a 5-month-old granddaughter, a 5-year-old grandson and I thought, ?I don?t want to miss any of their lives over a car.? Let ?em have it,? Glenn Cunningham said.

Cunningham was at the JCIA late last Friday because of snow and he said he went to the parking lot about 11 p.m. to warm up and dust off his Mercedes ML350, as well as a handful of other cars in the lot at 501 Route 440.

JCIA equipment operator Jessie Jackson walked over and stopped to talk to Cunningham as a Jeep SUV pulled into the lot, did a U-turn and stopped beside the pair.

?I was looking right at the driver and I saw the passenger open his door and I said ?Jessie, he?s getting ready to rob my vehicle.? Jessie tried to go round the back of the Jeep and the guy put it in reverse and hit Jessie. He got knocked back, but he stayed up.?

Cunningham said he was fumbling for his cellphone when the driver ?reached back and lifted up his shirt to motion as if he had a gun. I told Jessie, ?If he has a gun, just let them have the car.? The passenger got into my vehicle and they took off, jumping the island I guess, and they headed toward the Hackensack (River) bridge.?

Police put out a description of the car and a Jersey City police officer spotted the SUV on the Lincoln Highway, made a U-turn to follow it, but lost sight of it. Cunningham said he checked his E-ZPass account later and saw that his car had gone through a Garden State Parkway toll in East Orange.

Cunningham said police told him that the taking of the vehicle was not, technically, a carjacking because he was not in it at the time. The car remains missing.

The 32-year employee of the JCIA said ?I think that if Jessie hadn?t come over, things would have went badly for me.?