Doing The Right Thing

Chris received the COOLEST phone call earlier this week, I really wanted to tell you about.

If you remember - way back in 2006 I told a story about my husband - "my hero" who had gone 'above and beyond the call of duty' while on his way home from working at the Department of Corrections. Here is a snipit from that blog:

It was about 15 years ago, and this story is from memory, so I apologize to
Chris if I get any of the details wrong. Chris had just gotten out of
training to work for the Department of Corrections (DOC) and he was now employed
at a State Prison somewhere in South St. Petersburg. Because he was new, he had
to work the crappy shifts. He was getting off work – it was about 1 AM and he
was headed up the Interstate to get home.

He was traveling through the ‘rough’ section of town. South St. Pete at
that time was racially hot and tempers often flared between blacks and whites at
that time. Chris has always paid attention to his surroundings but did it even
more-so after his training with DOC. He noticed a car ahead of him, pretty
far away as he could just see the tail lights. Another car raced around Chris’s
at a high rate of speed, but slowed as it was passing the car way ahead of him.
Chris noticed a flash in the fast car… and thought that perhaps the guy had lit
a cigarette and the flash was from his lighter. Chris then noticed the other car
pull off onto the shoulder of the road.

A black male got out of the car and proceeded to try to flag Chris down.
Chris is in his DOC uniform, and he’s white – really white – in this section of town – at this time of night.
Should he stop?? What could the man possibly want?? Back then everyone didn’t
have cell phones, so he couldn’t have wanted that. Chris – for some reason –
decided to stop.

The man told Chris that the guy passing them in the other car SHOT into his
car for no reason, and the bullet pierced through the back seat and into the
side of his neice. Chris examined the girl and could not find an exit wound, but
she was badly bleeding. He checked for a pulse and she was still okay. Bleeding
badly, but okay.

Again, nobody back then had cell phones so calling for help was out of the
question. The roads were barren as it was so late at night and they were on a
highway so walking to get help was out of the question. The grandmother was in
the back seat hysterically screaming for help. Chris put her to work, asked her
to get a pillow case, put it over the gunshot wound, and then HUG her as tightly
as she could.

Chris grabbed the little girl and put her into his truck along with her
Uncle and grandmother. They rushed to the hospital, breaking every speed limit
and safe driving laws as they went.

The girl ended up being okay, thanks to Chris. Without question, he saved
her life. When Chris was at the hospital, he gave the police a full description
of the man, the car and anything else he could remember. Because he had just
gotten out of training he had the memory and details of a cop, so the police
were able to catch the guy. They actually found him in his car, under an
overpass on the interstate, RELOADING his gun to go hit more cars. So… who
really knows how many lives Chris could have saved that night!

He was later awarded a heroism award from the State of Florida for “Heroism
Above and Beyond The Call Of Duty”.

So, that was way back when. But something else happened a few years ago that I never blogged about.

It was July 8, 2005. My youngest sister, Katie, was married. Chris, the kids and I were all staying on St. Pete beach for the weekend, but we drove into Tampa for the wedding and the reception. When it was over, we drove back to our condo on the beach.

While driving back, the roads were wet... it was raining. We were in St. Pete and it was late... midnight or so. We were in the left lane approaching a traffic light that was red. In the right lane was a car already stopped. But coming up behind him was a man who had no intention of stopping.

SLAMMMMMMMM

This guy slammed right into the back end of the guy sitting at the light. WOW!! We witnessed the accident. I remember my first question to Chris "are we going to stick around for the police report?" He mentioned that it probably wouldn't be necessary. The guy in the stopped car was all the way in the middle of the intersection now, the other guy was CLEARLY at fault... no ifs-ands-or buts. And then the weirdest thing happened.... the guy in the truck that just hit the guy.... LEFT THE SCENE. He drove off through a convenience store parking lot that was on the corner (because there were so many cars now in the intersection trying to figure out what to do for the poor guy in the car).

I think it was Amanda that said "Dad, you aren't going to let him get away are you?" And with that.... we left the scene as well. We followed that guy EVERYWHERE.

I was on the phone with 911, describing the accident and the fact that the man had left the scene. It became EXTREMELY evident that the driver was SEVERELY intoxicated. He couldn't drive in a straight line... he was making odd turns, he'd go down streets and drive in people's grass, often times brushing up close to cars, mailboxes, etc. I'm sure the 911 tape was incredible. As we were on the phone with 911, Chris gave VERY detailed instructions on which way the guy was headed so that the police could find us. "He's turning North onto 22nd Avenue. He's headed East on 42nd Street." Heck, if it were me - I'd only be able to say he turned right or left -- thank goodness for Chris!

When the guy finally stopped, he pulled into a yard/driveway and smashed into a parked car. He got out of his truck and fell flat on his face. He was so drunk, he was incapable of walking at the time. It took him a little while to get up. We were on the phone with 911 and they advised us not to approach him. The guy finally got up, and went to the door of the home he crashed into, ringing their bell. The homeowners came out, but didn't know the guy and told him to leave. (Course, they might not have known that he crashed into their car on the way into their driveway!)

When he tried to get back into the truck and leave, we knew we had a problem. Chris said "I know you don't want us to get involved, but - he's trying to get in his truck and drive away." 911 told him to go and take his keys and keep him from driving, whatever it took, until the police showed up. (Oh yeah... all that time, and the police still had not shown up yet!)

Chris took the guys keys and wouldn't let him drive. Again, without question, this guy and his passenger were HIGHLY drunk. When the police showed up, the passenger took off running. But they did catch the driver.

Mind you, we were in wedding dress clothes which were a bit wet because it was raining. Pretty funny stuff.

Anyways... the police said there was "nothing they could do" about the guy who had gone running. Oh, and there were TONS of police cars, let me tell you. They had gone up and down the streets looking for the guy. We were frustrated with that answer. They were just going to give up the search? Heck, on COPS - the TV show - they would have called out the K-9 units or something. So Chris says, "I think you can look for him. He's not on the streets right?" Police officer: "Right, we've been up and down the streets looking for him." Chris: "So, he's obviously hiding in somebody's yard. Which is private property. Which makes it trespassing. Which, is against the law, right?" Police: "Uh, RIGHT!" And with that, they send more police officers out to look in the yards to try to find the guy. Don't know if they ever did find him or not.

So that ended our really weird night that night. We got back to our condo SUPER late, but we felt that we had certainly done 'the right thing'.

Then on Tuesday the phone rings at the house. A woman called for Chris, she said that her husband was the man behind the wheel who was hit from behind by the drunk driver. They were going to trial... and she had been reading the transcripts. She found his name, looked up his number and wanted to call and thank him personally for everything he did. She couldn't believe that we would take all that time and go after this guy, giving the police all that information as we went.

While they were on the phone, Chris was able to tell her all the cool details that she wasn't able to know from just reading transcripts. And it was really neat for Chris to get a call to say "thank you". I mean, you just don't get that all the time.

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The only other thing I wanted to tell you about was that we have moved the Rhocchini WOW WALL. It's no longer a physical wall in the house. It's now a virtual wow wall - on Myspace. I made a Myspace page called "WOW WALL" and once a week or so I post on there what A's the kids have brought home. If you are interested in becoming a friend of the 'wow wall' just go to my Myspace page and you'll see it's one of my top friends.

The kids are doing really well. In particular Justin - who has a VERY good chance of making straight A's this nine weeks. I just can't believe it. Chris and I are trying to figure out what on earth we are going to do for him if indeed he does make straight A's. I think what we'll do is fly him up to Maryland for Thanksgiving to spend almost a whole week with his Grandma Gwen and Grandpa Coley - all by himself. Gwen wanted me to send up all 3 kids, but this has to be a very special reward for ONLY Justin. I told Gwen I'd get the ticket and she could spoil him rotten while he was up there.

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I should run, I just wanted to post and tell you about the really cool call Chris received earlier this week.

Please keep us all in your prayers.