You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy.™
Home Invasion.
I met a 22 year old woman today.
I pulled up to her 1500 square foot home in the middle of nowhere. The birds were chirping and the air was refreshing.
The woman, four months pregnant, was seated on the front porch. She was talking on a borrowed cell phone because the bad guys stole her’s.
I walk up to her slowly and keep a respectful distance.
“OK, I gotta go,” she says to whomever she is speaking with. She is eye balling me, curiously, but not with a hostile glare.
I introduce myself. “Hi I’m here because of the home invasion…..”
My words trail off.
That cold call knock on the door. You’ve had a tragedy and I’m here to get you to talk about it.
It’s always so awkward. No set up phone call. No intermediary to introduce us. Just knock knock knock.
I’m not there to sell magazines or dish washing detergent, but I am peddling news and it doesn’t always feel comfortable, especially when you have just been through hell.
I don’t have my camera, because I expect her to send me packing.
After all, this young mom has just experienced sheer terror.
“That’s OK,” she says letting me know she is willing to talk.
Wow. This job is still surprising after 3 decades.
Just then, her four year old pops up and starts saying I have hair like his daddy.
I laugh and say aloud, “I don’t think that’s possible.”
It breaks the ice. His momma laughs.
I ask her what happened.
She begins to fill me in on a night of horror.
Two maniacs, armed with a shot gun, pick this house for some crazy reason. It’s isolated, nobody will hear them scream, who knows.
The home invaders kick in the back door and point the guns at the head of she, her son, and her boyfriend, who are all in bed.
The men begin beating her boyfriend, smashing him in the head with the shot gun. When that’s not enough violence they smash a wooden chair over his skull.
She says the men take her 50 inch TV, 300 dollars in cash and some video games.
She says she hears the tires squeal gravel out of the driveway. She waits a few minutes and then opens the door.
She finds her unconscious boyfriend on the floor, broken chair parts covering his face. She pulls his lifeless form into the bedroom and slams the door.
She waits till she thinks the coast is clear and then drives to her relatives house nearby to use their phone to call the law.
Sheriff’s deputies arrive and begin investigating. That’s when the bad guys make a mistake. They drive back by the crime scene. The road is so remote and it is so late, the deputy thinks it suspicious so he attempts to pull the men over.
They take off and drive 70 mph through narrow winding country roads.
after 3 miles, the men surrender and property from this woman and other victims is found in their possession.
The boyfriend suffers a serious gash to his head and a concussion. But she says “Thank the Lord, he will be OK.”
The woman says she is waiting for ADT alarm company to arrive.
I don’t blame her.
I ask her little boy if he is scared.
He’s cute, drinking milk from a sippy cup. He saw the whole thing. He nods that he was.
Cherish every moment.
And that is crazy™