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Marc2b -> An Ordinary Hero (5/9/2008 1:48:46 PM)
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What is a hero? Most of the time it is just an average, ordinary, somebody who gets involved and does the right thing.
A couple of weeks ago there was an incident in my home town. A man drove by a local elementary school, turned around, and came to a stop next to a thirteen year old girl walking home school. When he started to get out of the car the girl ran away and hid behind a dumpster. The man looked for her a few minutes, then left. The girl ran home and told her parents. The police were called and a description of both the man and his vehicle were taken. Parents at the school were informed of the incident as well as the local media.
A few days ago, near another school in another part of town, a ten year old girl was walking to school when a man in a car drove by and waved to the girl. He then turned around and pulled up next to the girl. He rolled the window down and simply told her to "get in the car." The girl ignored him and kept on walking. The man followed her for a few seconds but then, drove away as she approached the intersection in front of her school.
The crossing guard at the intersection had seen the man pull up next to the girl and could see that the girl was frightened. She asked the girl what happened and then told her to go immediately to the principal’s office and explain what happened. The police were called and – as you’ve probably guessed – the description of both man and car matched the earlier incident.
Later that same day, the crossing guard was coming out of a bank which was near the school from the earlier incident when she thought she saw the same car. The car was coming toward her (which, incidently, meant it was coming closer to the school as well) and the driver was watching some girls walking home from school. Both the man and the car looked like the same ones from the incident earlier that day. She started to call police but saw a police car nearby and waved him over. The man in the car apparently saw this and sped away. Police converged on him and he was arrested a few blocks away.
Police are now certain that he is the same man from the earlier incident. They are also looking into wether he is connected to an incident in a nearby town where a twelve year old girl was abducted from her bus stop, taken to an abandoned house, and raped (that girl got away when she climbed out a second story window when her assailant left the room for a moment).
So far he has only been charged with endangering the welfare of a child and, unfortunately, released on bail. The police say they are keeping a very close eye on him and the number of parents walking their kids to school has definitely increased. Time will tell how this turns out but to me the important thing is the actions of that crossing guard. Thanks to her sharp eyes and willingness to get involved a dangerous child predator may be brought to justice. The mayor plans to honor her officially but in the meantime police have had to ask people to stop driving to her intersection to thank her – it’s causing traffic tie-ups while the kids are trying to get to school.
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