Thursday, November 18, 2004

Girl power!

This one will make you smile.

It seems that an Idaho car thief stole a woman's Eagle Talon, and she hunted him down and stole the car back, while her girlfriend proceeded to beat up the thief! Unbelievable! lol! But truth is stranger than fiction...I had a similar story once, where my car was stolen in Tulsa, and a friend and I chased down the thieves in his sports car. Only -- if we had been as powerful as these women, we'd have caught all four thieves and smacked the tar out of them!!

Check out the story:

She yelled, "Our car's being stolen!" but the thief drove off just as her husband ran outside. He got into his own car to give pursuit, while Cheryl called police, then had her friend Cami Gelles pick her up.

Husband, wife and friends — men in one car, women in another — combed the small city of 50,000 for the Talon.

After a couple of fruitless hours, Otero told Gelles she'd fill her tank for her trouble, and they pulled into a gas station.

Suddenly they saw a familiar pair of headlights. The women watched as the Talon pulled up to a bank of pay phones across the street. A strange man got out to make a call.

Gelles quietly drove up to the Talon. Otero hopped into the driver's seat, stuck her key in the ignition and sped off. Rap music instantly blared out of the CD player. Otero noticed that her collection of Christian-music CDs and other personal items were gone. "As I'm driving off in my car," she related to the State Journal, "I'm wondering if I hadn't gotten in the wrong car because the interior was so different."

Gelles was supposed to take off after Otero. But instead, she got out of her own car and marched over to the suspect.

"You stole my friend's car!" she shouted. "You're going to jail!"

He denied it, but she grabbed him and tried to hold him until cops showed up. The man started hitting Gelles, according to Otero, saying "I have warrants! I'm not going back to jail!"

"She started hitting him back," Otero added. "She gave as good as she got. I didn't know that side of her."

Finally, the suspect managed to wriggle out of the sweatshirt Gelles was holding him by just as an onlooker came up to help her. The suspect ran off.

"You should have seen my husband's face when we drove up in that car," Otero told the newspaper. "His mouth was dropped to the ground, and we were like, 'Girls rule!'"

lol! Read it here.

Enjoy.

P.S. Moral of the story: Don't mess with determined women!

:-)





5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks!!! You made me smile!!

Cheryl Otero :)

Loy Mershimer said...

The woman herself!!

Remind me never to get on your wrong side, ok? lol...

Seriously, that was the neatest story -- truth is stranger than fiction sometimes. I got a kick out of it b/c I had a similar thing happen once. I walked away from my car, only about 150 feet or so, in a Church parking lot. I turned around to find my car leaving without me! A friend, who had seen me take off running after my car [and not catching it, lol] pulled up behind me in his sports car, and the chase was on!

It was dangerous for a few moments of driving, as we ignored a few road signs, but when the thieves pulled into a gas station, we went around traffic on the right, jumped a curb and went airborn, landed in the gas station lot, hit the brakes and slid sideways up behind my car. Immediately the doors of my car popped open and four thieves jumped out and ran for their lives. We left BOTH cars running and chased them. They split in several directions, with two of them running across four lanes of traffic to escape. But I soon realized that both cars were running! So I ran back to the gas station ensure that a couple of them couldn't double back and now get TWO cars for the *price* of one, lol.

I reached into my car to get the keys [which I had left in the ignition at church]. And there, on the seat, I found a huge ring of keys, packed full of keyes. Obviously, these were professional thieves, looking for certain models of cars and ready to steal at a moments' notice.

By now, of course the gas station was abuzz with all the commotion. And one woman came running up and said, 'Are you a detective?' lol. I laughed and said, 'No, we just chased down the people that stole my car!'

I called the police and they filed a report and took the huge keyring as evidence - but nothing ever came of it. I kinda wish I had kept those keys as a souvenir!! At least I'd have gotten something back for the trouble, lol.

Oh, and WE didn't make the news 'cause we just weren't as cool as a couple women in Idaho! ;-)

lol. Glad to make you smile. I'm sure that you made a lot of people smile already, with that tale!

Have a blessed thanksgiving!

Loy

Anonymous said...

Thanks Loy!

In recent days, there has been information that has come out about the thief to give me reason to pause. He has been arrested, and according to police, the young man that stole my car is a fugitive from Washington, wanted for absconding parole and other felony violations. I...more than anyone realize how bad this could have been. I am also glad to know that this man is off of our city streets and going to prison where he belongs.

Sounds like you also know the rush that you feel when your car is being stolen. You must know how your instinct just take over. There is not a whole lot of time to think. A lot of people are talking about this and everyone has an opinion about how they would have handled it. I say, and I believe that you will agree, You can't know how you would react unless you have experienced it. These people are all "THINKING about what they would or would not have done" This was MY CAR! Not his! He had no right...I had every right. Had I had time to think about it, perhaps things would have had a different outcome.

Perhaps Cami and I could have loaded him into my trunk...taken away his shoes...driven him up deep into the mountains...and made him walk home! (only to have police waiting for him of course) It would certainly have made for a much better story...tee hee!

Happy Thanksgiving!!
Cheryl Otero

Anonymous said...

P.S.

One little fact that no one has talked about in the press is the fact that I prayed. I was so shocked that my car had been stolen that all I knew to do was look for it and ask the Lord to help me find it. I am a Christian, and I believe in the power of prayer. In a city filled with 50,000 people it was not luck that I found my car. It was answered prayer!

Chery Otero

Loy Mershimer said...

Thank so much for those Thanksgiving wishes, Cheryl.

YOU certainly have a lot to be thankful for, this season! :-)

And I agree with you -- when you are in a situation like that, intincts take over and you don't know what you'll do. People can sit back in the comfort of their homes and think of this or that, but really...they don't know what they would do, either.

Of course, we have to factor in God into the equation [which I do, always], and realize that sometimes what we think would be the logical response isn't the exact RIGHT response for the situation.

For instance, it may not seem logical what you did, but it may have been the EXACT RIGHT thing in the whole scheme of things: Perhaps yours and Cami's actions saved someone's life down the road, etc. We don't know. There is a greater purpose here, in what seems to some people to be the *wrong* move.

You just DO, and hope that the angels of the Lord are around!

I've been mugged here in Chicago, and threatened to be shot...also have had life threatening situations elsewhere. And, there is no textbook response. Each situation is different.

All I will say is if a person walks in relation to God, somehow, someway, in each situation, the *right* thing will happen even if it doesn't make sense to a lot of people.

lol...my mugging...where I looked the guy in the eye while he counted down to shoot me...turned into a situation where I was able to talk to him about God!

You never know...you just never know!

The thing we DO know here is that you all are ok, you have your car back, and perhaps that thief is saved from potentially worse things, or even this return to prison could be what saves his soul. All good! :-)

Happy Thanksgiving indeed! :-)

Loy