" I'm gon' shoot you, man! "

In the winter of 1983, about February, I'd guess, Paula and I, along with our two kids, Gena,5,and Jeff, 2, had just left the Sunday morning services at the Wilshire church of Christ in OKC. We were heading north on Kelley Ave, and passed an interesting sight -- a very large, tall man, was carrying a huge television from the side of a residence next to Kelley Ave., some fifty feet, out to the street on the side of the house. I said to Paula: 'Can you believe that someone would carry something that heavy so far when he could have parked the car up by the front door and carried it ten feet to the car?' We drove on for another block and then it hit me -- that guy was carrying that television out the side window of that home because he was probably likely stealing the television!

I turned the 1982 Buick LeSabre around in the middle of Kelly and slowly drove back south, in time to see the big man set the television in the back of a car and then, without taking time to tie down the truck lid, get back in the car and head south on Kelley. (Not tie down the trunk lid? Who would do that to a nice television if they were not in the commission of a crime? He's either a criminal or really stupid). The man saw me behind him and he eased his car into a right turn into the Musgrave neighborhood, driving slowly -- nonchalantly. The trunk lid was still bouncing up and down on the t.v. I stayed right behind him as he wound his way through the neighborhood, up one street and down another, gradually picking up speed. The streets wound around and there were vehicles here and there on both sides of the street, and that prevented him from really flying through the neighborhood. That was a good thing. There were also low spots on the pavement, at the intersections where streets met, for water drainage. Those prevented him from racing along too fast.

That's odd, I thought! Why would he do that? He was not really going anywhere...he was circling back toward the house where he had taken the television! As we passed the house for the second time, I looked toward the still-open window on the side of the house and saw the curtains hanging out the window, along with the upper half of a second man, who was watching our two-car 'parade'. Now I knew for sure what was going on: the second man was the accomplice, and he was waiting for his 'ride' to pick him up! At this point, I 'sat down on the horn' and continued following the guy with the television as he hurried up and down the streets to the west, south and north of the home where the television had been stolen. I was determined that the man in the window would not be getting his 'ride!'

You need to understand the sound of the horn on that big, new '82 Buick LeSabre. It sounded like the horn on a big Santa Fe train engine! It was a huge sound. I stayed on the horn, following the guy closely as he became ever more frantic. People in the neighborhood, who had slept in on this beautiful Sunday morning, started coming out of their houses, some in bathrobes, and staring at the spectacle. Some were likely angry at the loud, insistent honking on a quiet Sunday morning. Then I saw a nicely-dressed woman stop in her driveway. She had been to church services somewhere and was arriving home. I stopped and rolled down the window long enough to tell her there was a burglary in progress and asked her to call the police. She said she would.

I resumed the chase. The guy in the car, with the television then left the neighborhood, abandoning his accomplice and heading south on Kelley at a pretty good clip, his trunk lid still slamming repeatedly into the television. He got away, but I had his tag number and description of him and his car that I later shared with the police.

I drove back by the house and saw the other man -- the 'accomplice', hurry out of the front door of the home that the two men had been burglarizing. He headed west on that street, hands in his pockets, like he was heading off for a really fast, Sunday morning stroll. He walked really fast, as though he might have had a really strong case of the 'Tennessee Quick-Step' and was heading home to take care of business! I paced his fast walk, just about twenty feet behind him. He was on the sidewalk and I was close by, heading west in the street, trying to make sure I didn't hit any of the dozens of vehicles parked on the street in front of homes. The man was a very large man -- maybe 6'4", and approximately 230 lbs. His shirt tail was out and he took his hands out of his pockets, to walk faster, I'd guess. He ignored my presence in the street, some twenty feet behind and to his right.

My window was still down, so I spoke to him: "Say, did you see those guys breaking into that home down on the corner?" He replied: "No, man....did you see what they looked like?" To that I had to laugh, as I replied: "Yeah, as a matter of fact, I did...I got a good look at the thief who stole the television set....but you must know what he looked like...after all, he's your buddy!" To that comment, the big guy looked directly at me for the first time and said: "I'm gon' shoot you, man!" He reached with his left hand into his left front pants pocket, as though he was reaching for a gun. Thinking that he was bluffing, I quickly said to him: "Go ahead...do what you need to do, but, before you have a chance to shoot us, I'm gonna cut the wheel and run over you!"

His threat was a bluff, and he then took off running down the sidewalk-- pretty fast for a big guy. I continued to pace him, and I could tell that he knew he didn't have enough 'gas' to match the gas in a car, so he then ran between two homes and disappeared. Just about then the police helicopter appeared, followed by two squad cars. I stopped and told the officers what what had happened and they took up the chase. They caught the guy, hiding behind someones' home.

The other guy, the one with the television, was caught the next day, in one of the motels that existed back then, frequented by drug users and prostitutes -- just north of the Oklahoma State Capitol.

I was called to testify in court, and had the pleasure of pointing out the 'bluffer' who threatened to shoot us. He got fifteen years. He was a repeat offender. For some reason, I was not needed to testify in the case of the guy with the car and the television. I guess they caught him with the 'goods'.

The only downside to the adventure was the verbal thrashing I got from Paula, who was sitting in the front seat of our car. I realized that, while helping to catch the 'bad guys', I did a really stupid thing: I endangered the lives of my family by following the guy through the neighborhood (although not at a high rate of speed), and by verbally engaging one of the guys on the sidewalk who threatened to shoot us. Not a very bright thing to do.

I don't remember the sermon at Wilshire that morning. It got eclipsed by the 'action' on the way home from church. God's angels must have been watching over us that day!