We Got a 10-30!

Last night I am on my way to Macy's for a little Christmas shopping when all of a sudden I find my self in the midst of a 10-30 happening right before my eyes.

I actually heard the screams from down the block and then saw the kid running towards me, so I gave chase. I followed him around the corner and down 109th street where he darted across the street and into an apartment building. I then waited for the cops to come and gave them the description of the "perp."

The kid had to be no older than 16, about 6', 150 lbs, wearing an orange track suit with a white du-rag. He had a "dirty-stach" and was white-hispanic.

I could have totally caught the kid, he wasn't running very fast (he was more like jogging), but I didn't think it wise to just tackle the kid just in case he had a blade or a group of friends eager to come to his defense.

The cops asked if I could go down to the station to look at some pictures which I obliged. While I was waiting in the squad car the woman who had her purse stolen got in the car to go to the station to fill out the robbery report. She was 79 years old and was just waiting at the bus stop when she was knocked down to the ground and had her purse taken right out of her hands. I wish I had tackled the kid now.

Anyway we went to talk to the detectives who were every bit the stereotypical NYPD detectives you would think they would be. They were in the middle of responding to a murder that had recently taken place down the street from the precinct. Even with that chaos they were very attentive to both me and Mrs. Ferris, which was very impressive.

Mrs. Ferris and I were talking and when I told her that I was a youth pastor at a church she asked if I had gone to seminary. I told her "not yet" and she then informed me that her dad had taught at Union Theological Seminary and his name was Paul Tillich! Now I am no theologian, but I definitely know who Paul Tillich is. What a small world. She told me about moving to NYC as a little girl when her father had to flee Nazi Germany because of his religious writings and stance on the "The Final Solution" Hitler was beginning to implement throughout Europe.

It ended up taking about two hours to get everything wrapped up, but I am glad I made the time to go down to the station with Mrs. Ferris. I got a ride back home from three plain clothes cops in an undercover yellow cab (way cool) and on the way I thanked them for protecting the city and told them I was sorry for the recent shooting death of one of their fellow police officers. They thanked me and I went home.