A vigilante father-daughter duo chased down a truck full of alleged thieves they caught tearing out of their driveway.
Video of the dangerous ride shows the suspects ramming the victims’ car in their attempt to escape the Houston family.
The plastic surgeon believes he caught the suspects in the act as he came home from a business trip. He saw a pair of men in a red truck backing out of his driveway, according to KHOU-TV.
He called 911, but instead of waiting for the cops, he and his daughter decided to take matters in their own hands and gave chase.
… With his daughter at the wheel, the dad whipped out a cellphone to document their crackdown on neighborhood crime.
But then the chase takes a violent turn when the video shows the suspects turning around and speeding right toward them. The daughter frantically backs up as the father looks around, hoping a passerby will witness the incoming vehicle.
The video ends as the red truck crashes right into the pursuing vehicle. After the encounter, the family recovered several stolen belongings from the truck.
Even though police do not condone vigilantism, the father could care less because his neighborhood has experienced several burglaries.
First up, whoever decided to smatter “vigilantism” all over this article needs to be hit over the head with a dictionary!
VIGILANTE
a member of a volunteer committee organized to suppress and punish crime summarily (as when the processes of law are viewed as inadequate); broadly : a self-appointed doer of justice
This is not a pair of “Vigilantes”, these are two good citizens HELPING the police! Let’s replay the scenario to the side of the milquetoast: “Family comes home and sees a strange truck pulling out of their driveway in their neighborhood that has had a rash of break-ins. They call 911 and give as much information as they can. Police show up and say “Which way did they go?”. Family points in the direction they last saw the suspect vehicle, and the police drive that way until they get sick of it. Two days later another house gets broken into. Rinse, repeat.
Instead they contact the police and kept an eye on the suspects until police could arrive. Now this is NOT without danger, and the family’s car was severely damaged and the daughter suffered minor injuries. It could have gone MUCH worse. Still it didn’t, the criminals were caught and hopefully will get a solid sentence for their crime that day, and possibly the police can link them to other crimes in the area.
Yes they took a risk following the vehicle, but think about it broadly. Getting broken into and your stuff stolen is horrible. It’s a violation of your castle, and a violation of the safety of where you sleep. They not only got their stuff back, but they probably prevented several more of these robberies. Weigh your cost/benefit. I would say everybody in the area is EXTREMELY happy things played out the way they did, because it means they can sleep safer in their beds.
The father also was smart and took a cellphone video of the event, follow the link above to watch it.
These are not “Vigilantes” they are just good people doing a selfless act!
What can you say? A newspaper from New York being anti-self defense? I’m shocked…
s
To “journalists”, words are just another tool to spread their bias. Unfortunately, many others do the same, to the point at which some words have been so over-misused (with apologies to George Bush) that they have no precise meaning any more. “Vigilante”, “hero”, even “rape” (so that the well-known scholar, Whoopi Goldberg, needs to qualify it as a “rape-rape”). Not all of this is political; much is simple ignorance. Nevertheless, it is annoying to me, and to the many people I have felt it necessary to correct or harass about such bad usage.
You’re right. I’d’ve dropped the “vigilante”–it’s inaccurate, misleading, and unnecessary. (There was no attempt by the burglary victims to effect an arrest, e. g.) What I saw on the video was energetic and prudent citizen self-help by the burglary victims, and multiple instances of the already victimized doctor and his daughter being assaulted by a driver using a pickup truck as a weapon. (Hope I didn’t miss anything.)
We have in my area occasional reports of crime witnesses too frightened to testify in gang-related cases, because the gangs can punish more effectively than the police can protect. So how can energetic and lawful citizen self-help be bad?
The doctor and his daughter deserve some sort of community activist award, in my opinion.