Cathy in the Wright

Pardon the Intrusion but Not the Intruder

My other daughter lives in a great neighborhood in Mound, a western suburb of Minneapolis. It’s this kind of place: Repair the porch on Saturday and three neighbors show up to help. And the day’s sure to end with brats, beer and pop with spouses, kids and dogs. It’s also a neighborhood where an apparently drunken 18-year-old is charged with entering three homes about 4 a.m. Thursday and trying to choke three women and a 10-year-old girl. This was a pretty big print and TV story in the Twin Cities, with lots or squad cars, a State Patrol helicopter and several K9 pooches. Here’s a quiz to see if you can tell what happened in this red patch in blue Minnesota.

In home no. 1, the guy surprises a sleeping woman and begins to choke her. She:

(a) Pleads for him not to hurt her.
(b) Breaks away and flees the house.
(c) Goes for his eyes with her fingernails as she hollers for her son to call 911.
(d) Pursues the guy out of the house.

In home no. 2, the guy starts choking a 10-year-old girl. Hearing a disturbance, the mother:

(a) Calls 911 and hopes that police get there in time.
(b) Sobs and frets, causing the guy to leave.
(c) Runs into the girl’s bedroom and attacks the attacker with her fists.
(d) Chases the guy out of the house.

In home no. 3, the guy starts choking a woman, who:

(a) Breaks away and flees to a neighbor’s home, pounding on the door for help.
(b) Uses her martial-arts training to rip off his shirt before chasing him out of the house.

The correct answers are:

No. 1: (c) and (d).
No. 2: (c) and (d).
No. 3: (b)

I’m assuming that everybody got 100% on that quiz; you certainly must have, if you know the neighborhood.

The shirtless 18-year-old eluded police and dogs by swimming across a little lake in the neighborhood, and this is where small-town law enforcement came into play. A Mound officer used his knowledge of area lowlifes to find a guy who had been drinking with the 18-year-old, and that led to an arrest the next day. As I see it, that 18-year-old was lucky that police got to him first.

Posted by Professor at June 3, 2005 07:59 PM