Angie & Jim

Car Chaseby Angie

Well, it’s been a really long time since we’ve written, but I hope you’ll forgive me because I’m making up for it by writing a really exciting post.

Today I was a witness…and I’m not talking about sharing my testimony. Today I gave a police statement about seeing the culprits of a home invasion fleeing the scene of the crime. Kjelene and I were leaving Jollene Berghoff’s home after our Visiting Teaching appointment today at about 11:50. As we pulled up to the stop sign at the corner of Lobelia and Central, we saw two young adult men running toward the corner, then across the street in front of our car. As they ran, one of them glanced behind him and we realized that another man, a little older looking but still in is 20s or so, was running after them and yelling and dialing on his cell phone all at the same time. Kjelene rolled down her window and asked the guy with the cell phone if he needed help and yes said yes – his house had just been broken into.

Well, we had been about to turn right, but Kjelene whipped her car around to the left instead (south) and started to follow the first two guys, who were just climbing into a truck down the street. The truck started up fast enough that there was obviously a driver in it waiting for them. It sped off, but Kjelene followed and tried to keep up, calling out license plate numbers and details about the truck to me – I pulled out a pen and a little notebook I had in my purse. The pickup swerved around a FedEx truck and Kjelene tried to stay right behind him (we were honked at, vehemently, by Mr. FedEx), but when she saw that they plowed left onto Northfront without even slowing and flew around the blind corner toward Vasco, she decided that the chase was up for us and we’d better call the police with what little info we had.

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We drove back to the house they had come from and called our information in to 911. The police asked us to stay there, so we did, and we talked to the homeowner and his wife while we waited. Apparently (this just gives me the shivers, I can tell you), they both work but she was home sick today. There was a knock at her door, but she never answers it when she’s home alone, so she ignored it. Then she heard someone coming into the house – they came in through the kitchen window! She ran upstairs to her bedroom, called her husband who works close by, and locked herself in her closet with their gun. She also called the police, but since it was from a cell phone, help was not forthcoming very quickly from that corner. When it sounded like they were coming upstairs toward her room, she fired the gun, there in the closet, and successfully frightened the intruders enough to send them running. Her husband had arrived home just as they were taking off to their waiting friend in the pickup.

So! The police came and attracted the attention of several supportive neighbors, and Kjelene and I waited in the car in the pouring rain. We took turns giving our statements to the police (they wanted us to be separated when we did so, so we took turns on the porch) and were sent home shivering with cold and adrenaline. They asked us if we would recognize the culprits in a line-up! So that may or may not be the end of that.