This is delayed about two weeks as I have been sorting this incident out in my head and with the wife.
Background:
So, because of a court order my wife has to drive three times a week from North Liberty to Elkhart in order to drop of my daughter to her biological father for visitation. Because the weather has been warming up, she has taken to driving to and from on the US 20 bypass. During dropoff, I routinely drive over after getting off of work and meet her at the handover location, and we head home for about 2 hours before having to return. When we get home, I strap on my EDC. The biological is a bit of a tool, and for some reason finds me intimidating, so me being around keeps him from being stupid.
Story:
So, we had just picked our daughter up from the biological and we headed home on the bypass. As we were nearing the IN 23 exit for North Liberty, we see a car flipped onto it's roof on the side of the road deep in the ditch. The wife points it out and I instruct her to pull it over, flash the hazards, etc. I ask her to stay with the kids as she is asking if we need to dial 911. I asked her to wait as several other cars were also stopping to check on the vehicle. I hop out of the truck and move down to the flipped over car as two guys are climbing up the hill waving off people telling them they are okay. I ask if anyone else was in the vehicle and if either of them are hurt, and the man shakes my hand and tells me that they are fine. At which point, I found that the wife had walked up behind me leaving our two kids in the truck about 30-40 yards away. The reek of alcohol was strong and the wife sees one of the guys toss a bright blue box into the woods from beside the car.
At this point, I'm a little perturbed because the wife left the kids in the truck after I asked her to stay there, but I wasn't willing to pick the fight at the moment. The guy that shook my hand suddenly asked a very strange question to the group of us that had stopped. "Can you take me to the gas station?" At which point, we hear sirens coming closer in the distance and the flashing lights are visible coming up from down the road. He asked if someone had called 911 and gets a panicked look on his face and start acting real jittery.
He starts walking down the road towards the exit. I speak up and tell the guy that he needs to wait, but he keeps on going. The other guy from the vehicle looks around to see where his buddy had gone and asks where he was. I point down the road, and he gets this look of disbelief on his face.
Meanwhile, the guy is passing by some of the parked cars that had stopped to try to help. He starts moving towards some of the passenger doors looking inside. The wife had left the kids in the truck, as well as the keys and it was still running. At this point, this horrible feeling in my gut rose up and I unzipped my jacket and unsnapped my holster as the guy was moving towards the passenger door of the wife's truck. His arm slowly started to reach up as he took another step and suddenly stopped. He paused for a couple seconds and then took several steps back before taking off back towards the exit.
As the guy was about halfway to the exit, the first of the St. Joe County Sheriffs deputies arrive. My wife quickly flags the first one down and points out the guy heading for the hills. She also pointed out the box tossed into the woods to another officer as the first set was chasing down the guy trying to get away. Both of the people in the car were handcuffed and whisked away. I snapped my holster back up and zipped up my jacket as it was getting dark and cold out.
After another of the deputies was checking on the stories of everyone there, we learned that the guy had been passing cars that were doing 70 mph like they were standing still. They had come up on traffic that was staggered and tried to pass them all quickly and ended up losing it. Luckily, they struck no one else on their way through. I told the deputy about how the guy was reacting and how he was acting while looking into vehicles and that feeling in my gut.
The officer's reply: "If he reached for it, I'd have shot him."
My reply: "If he had gone another step forward, that's what would have happened."
The officer nodded and said: "Good."
The box in the woods turned out to be a case of beer. Open containers abounded.
We headed home without a shot fired. I ate a candy bar to get some sugar back in my system after the adrenaline rush and made dinner.
Background:
So, because of a court order my wife has to drive three times a week from North Liberty to Elkhart in order to drop of my daughter to her biological father for visitation. Because the weather has been warming up, she has taken to driving to and from on the US 20 bypass. During dropoff, I routinely drive over after getting off of work and meet her at the handover location, and we head home for about 2 hours before having to return. When we get home, I strap on my EDC. The biological is a bit of a tool, and for some reason finds me intimidating, so me being around keeps him from being stupid.
Story:
So, we had just picked our daughter up from the biological and we headed home on the bypass. As we were nearing the IN 23 exit for North Liberty, we see a car flipped onto it's roof on the side of the road deep in the ditch. The wife points it out and I instruct her to pull it over, flash the hazards, etc. I ask her to stay with the kids as she is asking if we need to dial 911. I asked her to wait as several other cars were also stopping to check on the vehicle. I hop out of the truck and move down to the flipped over car as two guys are climbing up the hill waving off people telling them they are okay. I ask if anyone else was in the vehicle and if either of them are hurt, and the man shakes my hand and tells me that they are fine. At which point, I found that the wife had walked up behind me leaving our two kids in the truck about 30-40 yards away. The reek of alcohol was strong and the wife sees one of the guys toss a bright blue box into the woods from beside the car.
At this point, I'm a little perturbed because the wife left the kids in the truck after I asked her to stay there, but I wasn't willing to pick the fight at the moment. The guy that shook my hand suddenly asked a very strange question to the group of us that had stopped. "Can you take me to the gas station?" At which point, we hear sirens coming closer in the distance and the flashing lights are visible coming up from down the road. He asked if someone had called 911 and gets a panicked look on his face and start acting real jittery.
He starts walking down the road towards the exit. I speak up and tell the guy that he needs to wait, but he keeps on going. The other guy from the vehicle looks around to see where his buddy had gone and asks where he was. I point down the road, and he gets this look of disbelief on his face.
Meanwhile, the guy is passing by some of the parked cars that had stopped to try to help. He starts moving towards some of the passenger doors looking inside. The wife had left the kids in the truck, as well as the keys and it was still running. At this point, this horrible feeling in my gut rose up and I unzipped my jacket and unsnapped my holster as the guy was moving towards the passenger door of the wife's truck. His arm slowly started to reach up as he took another step and suddenly stopped. He paused for a couple seconds and then took several steps back before taking off back towards the exit.
As the guy was about halfway to the exit, the first of the St. Joe County Sheriffs deputies arrive. My wife quickly flags the first one down and points out the guy heading for the hills. She also pointed out the box tossed into the woods to another officer as the first set was chasing down the guy trying to get away. Both of the people in the car were handcuffed and whisked away. I snapped my holster back up and zipped up my jacket as it was getting dark and cold out.
After another of the deputies was checking on the stories of everyone there, we learned that the guy had been passing cars that were doing 70 mph like they were standing still. They had come up on traffic that was staggered and tried to pass them all quickly and ended up losing it. Luckily, they struck no one else on their way through. I told the deputy about how the guy was reacting and how he was acting while looking into vehicles and that feeling in my gut.
The officer's reply: "If he reached for it, I'd have shot him."
My reply: "If he had gone another step forward, that's what would have happened."
The officer nodded and said: "Good."
The box in the woods turned out to be a case of beer. Open containers abounded.
We headed home without a shot fired. I ate a candy bar to get some sugar back in my system after the adrenaline rush and made dinner.
