A taste of winter and car chases

Boy, it got cold the last few days. It is our first taste of the coming winter and I can tell that it's going to be a cold one. Then again, I'm a desert girl and shiver at the first sign of cold. I was wearing two shirts and one sweater yesterday and I think the temp was only in the 50s. Just wait until it's January and 20 degrees. FUN! I'm ready to fire up the fireplace and the furnace right now.

Us LonDolls had a girls' night on Friday, to which only three of the five were able to attend. We still had fun though. We went to a game store where you can play whatever game they already have open. They have a lot of tables set up for people to come in, get comfortable, and play for a while. We played a game called "Mystery at the Abbey". It's a lot like Clue but involves monks, a murder, and a monastery. After we got the rules down, it was a lot of fun. We played three games in which Mody and I found out just how competitive Trippy really is. We then went out to eat some french toast for me and Mody and a chicken sandwich for Trippy. It was a good night out. Hey Mody....PANINI!

Then the night changed after I got home. After H and the kids got back from the video store, we noticed a strange man walking around near the moving company down the street. We watched him for a while and he opened the door of the company's moving truck which, he seemed surprised at, was unlocked. He noticed us watching him and proceeded to walk up and down the street saying that he was looking for a friend. Convinced that he was leaving, we went inside. I tried to look out for him through the window and didn't see him again. However, a few minutes later, we heard the truck fire up and tear off down the street. H and I knew that he had just stolen the moving truck. So, H jumped in the car to see where he was going and I called 911. I reported what had happened and then H tried to call me on the other line on my cell. That's when I learned that if you're on a 911 call, it won't let you answer the other line. So, I called him from our landline and had the 911 operator on one ear and H on the other.

He told us that the guy was driving up the interstate and was driving erratically. We found out later that he was driving that way to see if he was actually being followed, and figured out pretty quickly that he was. After leaving the interstate, he began to make many turns through residential neighborhoods and each turn was being relayed to the dispatcher. H said that he had run out of road and was in a dead end. Being 3/4 of a block behind him, he waited to see what the guy was going to do. He told us that he had stopped and turned off his lights. H could hear the cops but couldn't see them yet. Just then, the guy did a u-turn and gunned it straight for H in his car. H quickly got turned around and drove as fast as he could, even through stop signs, with the truck on his tail and the pedal to the floor. They ended up back on the interstate overpass bridge where the light was red. H knew that if he stopped, he would be slammed by the truck and if he didn't, that he would cause an accident. He decided to stop and slammed on his brakes and skidded. The truck did the same and as soon as he could, H did a u-turn. That was when the cops came along and pulled the guy over.

I was relaying all the info to the operator and wasn't thinking much about worrying until H told me that the guy was then chasing him and was trying to run him off the road. That's when my heart skipped a beat and I just wanted him out of the way of the truck and safe. My breath was stuck in my chest and I didn't really let it out until he told me that the cops had the guy and he wasn't in danger anymore. Later, a cop came and took H's statement and by then, his adrenaline had worn off and was freaking out just a bit himself. We couldn't believe what had just taken place. When it began, we didn't even really think, we just reacted. I'm thankful that he had the sense of calm at the needed moment and the skill to outrun that truck. If he didn't, his car would have been no match for that moving truck. Even now, thinking about it, my chest aches with fear. Well, it turns out that the guy had drug paraphenalia on him and was most likely high at the time. H was uncomfortable with the idea that a random guy was walking down our street, high on drugs, and looking to burglarize or steal something. We found out though that the guy actually had a connection to one of the business' employees and it wasn't random at all. After scouting the truck, he had broken into the office and stolen the keys. That's why I didn't see him out of the window, because he was in the office.

So, that was a wild event that I hope we never have to relive. But we are always willing to do what we can to help our neighbors and keep people like that out of our neighborhood. I just hope that we will always be that blessed with safety and have God's loving protection over us.