A couple weeks ago I was in Edmonton for a soccr tournament with my U12 boys soccer team. We were staying right near downtown in a great hotel right near the riverbank. We had a great view from our room as it overlooked the river and the rest of the city.
It was Saturday morning and we were about to make our way to our first soccer game over at the Edmonton soccer centre on the west side. My assistant coach and I were driving together and as we pulled out of the hotel I saw something I had never seen before. Actually, it was the screaming I heard first...a loud piercing scream for help that I had never heard before. And it was LOUD as I could hear it from inside my car. As I looked towards where the screaming was I saw a man running out of the store carrying a 24 pack of beer and running as fast as he could. My assistant coach, who happens to be from Toronto and probably sees this all the time, stated the obvious and said "that guy just robbed that store!".
As the man was running up the street we were driving parallel to him. I honestly didn't know what to do. I had a million thoughts going through my head...Did this guy have a gun? Is he dangerous? Are these Edmonton soccer teams really that good or can we win a game? It ended up that things would take care of themselves.
Being the brave hero that I am I decided there was nothing I could do and decided to just to drive to the soccer centre. Besides I could already hear the police sirens coming nearby and I figured they would catch this guy. Fate had a different plan. As I approached the first intersection (this all took place within a block of our hotel) I was going to turn left when I saw this robber barrelling across the road. Now of course he did have the right away as there was a walk light, but suddenly the hero in my decided to rear its ferocious head. The guy was running full tilt across the street and was constantly looking backwards to see if the cops were catching up. When I saw him glance back one more time the adrenaline in me kicked in. I was suddenly sweating and very hot and in a flash I was seeing all the injustice in the world...the tsunamis, the terrorists, the fact that Pepsi always makes fun of Coke and Coke never has done anything except be a better tasting soft drink. I pressed the gas pedal to the floor and shot out into the middle of the crosswalk just as the guy was running past. He didn't see a thing. He slammed into the side of my car and all I saw was him flying across the front of my hood. The case of beer went flying over the car and smashed onto the ground on the other side. The robber rolled over the front of my car and banged his head on the ground when he hit the other side. He didn't get knocked unconscious, but he just lay there groaning and holding his head.
Being the fearless and ferocious hero that I am I quickly locked all the doors in case he got up again. Luckily the police were there in an instant (I still don't know how they got there so fast except that there was a Tim Horton's across the street). Once he was in handcuffs I got out of my car and talked to the police. Needless to say I was almost late for our first soccer game since it took so long to give the police my statement. And so although this was the first time I had ever assisted in helping catch a robber, I think deep down I also hope it's the last (unless I can do it without endangering myself at all)!
1 comment:
Sheldon,
No one would scream if a guy grabbed beer... :)Sorry - my vote is "fiction"...
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