Here's an example of gratitude for you.

So, Saturday night, I turned in early. My friend Chris had come by the house and was watching TV as I was crashed on the couch.

All of a sudden, I'm awakened by a loud banging and wailing at the door. I jolt awake, stand up, take 2 steps (6 feet) toward the door and see this guy running toward my door with this wild look on his face. Needless to say, I wedge my big boot in the door and locked the deadbolt.

I hear this woman pleading, "Please call 911! Please call 911!" And I look around for my phone. I find it and dial 911. Then I return to the door and open it.


"911, what's your emergency?" asks the 911 operator.

--background--"Oh, my babys! How they gonna do this to my babies!"
As my house is suddenly flooded with a short young guy, a young woman, a seven-year old boy, a three year old, and the guy cradling a screaming 5 (FIVE) month old baby.--

"These people just crashed outside my house and they look pretty banged up."

Operator: Can you get them to quiet down in the background, I can't hear what your saying. Are you at *&$% U Rd? Officers have been dispatched.

--background--"I'm gonna get that ******. Why he do that? Man, we were trying to get away. You gotta help us, man. "
"My baby! My babies bleedin'!"

At this point, I run to get a towel as this man lays his baby RIGHT ON MY COUCH. I swiftly return and slip the towel under the (thank you Jesus) not bleeding baby. The woman collapses on my Laz Z Boy and starts gasping, cursing, and crying all at the same time.

Now, they were pretty banged up for taking the lumps they did.

According to our neighborhood forensic investigation team who have seen quite a few wipeouts at this curve, the man had to have been going at least 60-100 miles an hour (one neighbor is a little older. This car couldn't DO 0-100 in less than 30 seconds, which is more time than it takes to hit this curve.

When he encountered the curve, he hit his brakes to slow down which caused him to fish-tail. He overcorrected and nailed the mailbox post which was constructed out of two steel girders embed in a 2' x 2' x 2' concrete block.

After colliding with this (pictured above) bohemouth (apparently, someone some time ago got tired of replacing mailboxes and posts from drivers taking the corner too fast), it appears from tire marks at the scene that he was airborne for about 15-20 feet, the front of the car came down first, then the car was on two tires, then all four.

Unfortunately, with two now flat front tires, he was unable to steer and nailed a telephone pole. (You can see the car against the pole in the top photo. You can see the aftermath in the second one.) The impact from this and his possibly lowered front end stance from losing some tires caused the car to swing 90 degrees counter-clockwise and land. I didn't hear a thing.

The tale that began to unravel is one difficult to grasp and even more frightening to imagine. Of course, there are sides to every tale and I'll not point fingers. I do not have the full details that the police would, only what I heard and what I heard was basically this:

"We were in the McDonald's parking lot and this guy came up and started yelling at us. He pulled out a gun and we took off. He followed us. I turned down this road 'cause its a back way to get to my house. Thats not even my car! I was trying to get away and he kept coming. "
--I didn't get all the details of the crash. I'm sure it happened way too fast, but we can see what the aftermath was and draw conclusions from that.

Ending this part of the story is that I let them use my phone to call anyone they could to come take them to the hospital (I didn't volunteer because they all appeared healthy and not too stressed after what they just experienced). You'd think it would be easier to get in touch with someone at 3:30 in the morning (Three-thirty o'clock! AM! (a.m.)).

--What the heck were they doing out at 3:00 in the morning with their whole family hanging out in a McDonald's parking lot? Even their 5 month old!

Finally they leave, I watch a little TV, then slumber land greets me once more.

Today, when I get home from running the computer system at church, my friend tells me the people from last night came by.

According to him, they accused me of taking their police paperwork and telling the cops that they had been drinking (neither of which happened). They DID leave their EMS paperwork here and I put it on the countertop in case they came back. They may have been what they meant. They still shouldn't have accused considering how I opened my home to them as complete strangers.

If I see him again, I'm going to tell him he owes me $300 for repairs to mine & my neighbor's mailboxes.

I cannot believe this idiot had the NERVE to come over to my house and accuse me of STEALING HIS PAPERWORK! It's people like this that continue to perpetuate stereotypes. This stupid bastard has at least one child (he didn't claim the other two as his own) and a direct inability to accept things as being his fault. He lost his paperwork and couldn't even say he may have LEFT IT. He had to accuse ME of stealing! Then, he walked around the outside of my house looking for it! If I had stolen his paperwork, do you think that I with my carefully manicured lawn would have simply tossed it out a window? C'mon.

On a side note, I also hope that maybe someone from the City of Beaumont will see this and decide that something needs to finally be done about this curve. Maybe a sign with blinking yellow lights and reflective tape with those little reflective things that look like tiny skateboard ramps. Or maybe something more.

Truth be told, I think this is actually a really cool t-shirt that I am selling on my other website, but I can't tell you which one. Sorry. You'll have to either email me or leave a comment to be able to buy one. Trust me, it's totally worth it.