A scared mother fought back against a knife wielding robber who was hiding out in her minivan. Her two sons, aged 2 and 5 were in the van as well. Instead of quoting the news article on this, I have found her blog. This is how the events unfolded in her own words:
"I opened my doors, got my kids inside, by tow year old buckled up, and
left to go home. As I made my turn down Strickland road, the man that
had been hiding in my van popped up from the third row seat and waved a
knife and said, "Hey lady, if you don't want your kids to get hurt
you'll do exactly what I say". I was shocked and scared, but I told
myself to stay calm because panicking now would only make matters worse.
My 5 year old said, "hey what are you doing in here?". I asked my 5
year old to come up front, and the guy grabbed my son, and sat him next
to him. I asked him what he wanted, even though I knew the answer was
either money or me, and he said he needed money, I told him I didn't
have any cash. He then said, "Well you better go to an ATM and get some
or your kids are gonna get hurt." I asked him how much he wanted, He
said, " I need at least $200 dollars", I told him I didn't have $200
dollars in my account, I had about $20 dollars. He told me, "You better
figure out how to get it or your kids are gonna get hurt." I had turned
onto E Fayle street by then, and was getting ready to turn onto
Danubina, when I glanced back in my rear view mirror he was looking out
the window, and I reached for my phone so I could make an emergency call
to 911, and he said," Don't go back to Kroger's, go somewhere else." I
looked at him in my rear view mirror again and realized that this was
the same guy I saw standing outside Kroger's earlier smoking a
cigarette. He was wearing that red bandana I noticed. I made a left onto
Danubina towards E. James street, and as I was pulling up to the stop
sign, he was telling me where to go. He told me to turn left and go to
the little gas station right down the street near E James Street and
Kilgore, which I knew didn't have very many people nearby, only an
apartment complex. I had already decided to turn right because I knew if
I went left, there was nothing stopping him from hurting my kids when I
got out of the car to get him money, and I refused to leave him in the
car alone with my children. I made the turn onto E. James street heading
towards N. Alexander and he said," hey lady, are you crazy are you
trying to get your kids hurt, but by this time he was already up in the
front seat like I had prayed he would be. He saw me with my phone by
then and said to give him the phone, to which I said ,"Hell no." I put
my hand in between my seat the the door so that he couldn't reach it. He
then placed the knife at my throat and said give me the phone, I still
said no, but I had to get the knife away from my throat, so I put my
left hand, (which was holding the phone) in between his hand and my
throat so that I could try and get the knife away from my neck.
I pushed him off me, dropped my phone, and saw a telephone pole up
ahead. I grabbed the steering wheel with both hands, while he was still
trying to get the phone from where it had dropped and swerved my van
towards the telephone pole. I was aiming for the pole because my
children and I had seat belts on, he didn't. I figured if I hit the
pole, he would hit his head on the windshield or go through it, but I
missed the pole. I came to a stop and then he started to attack me
again. He tried to stab me in the leg, in the stomach, and the neck
again. I kept honking the horn in order to attract someones attention to
try and come help me. But no one came. I was on my own. We struggled
for a while, me honking the horn, and trying to get the knife, him
trying to get me to stop honking the horn, and keep the knife. I finally
stopped honking the horn and focused on getting the knife from him, his
only weapon, and I could hear my 2 year old screaming in the middle
seat, all I was thinking was get the knife, keep him focused on you and
your kids will stay alive.
I got the knife from him and we continued to struggle only he was trying
to get his knife back. He bit my hand trying to force me to give up the
knife, but he could have bitten through my knuckles for all I cared at
that moment, I wasn't giving him that knife back. I pushed him hard
enough to get him to fall back into the passenger seat, and then I
balled up my fist and punched him in the face, and told him to get the
F*^$ out of my car. He got out and started to run, I was scared, and
worried that if he got away he could come after us again, and possibly
have a gun instead of a knife next time, or he could hurt or kill
someone else, and I knew that couldn't happen, so I stepped on the gas
and took off after him. I was intending to side swipe him, just clip him
with the side of my van just hard enough to stop him until the police
arrived. But I swerved too much and ended up running completely over
him. When I put my car in park, I threw my door open and got out, with
the knife still in my hand. I saw him sitting up, so I thought he
probably wasn't hurt to bad. I then screamed at him, told him that he
was F*^$ing nuts, he was crazy, coming after children. I yelled at him,
and told him,"How dare you threaten my children", and told him he was
crazy again. I went back to my van and asked my kids if they were okay,
they said yes. I looked back and saw him scooting back, but not getting
up. I went back over to him and said,"You messed with the wrong B*+^$
today didn't you?" He said yes, I told him to get up, and he said he
couldn't move."
Please go read her blog post in entirety at her blog;
FAMILY
Here is Tomo News' CG animated interpretation of the event:
