Saturday around sunset, with Houston’s temperature and humidity hovering around 100º, a tall, skinny man robbed a McDonalds and was seen running from the fast-food restaurant with several employees chasing him. He had a sack in one hand and what looked like a pistol in the other.
The thief darted across a busy intersection to a shopping center where he rushed into an auto parts store. Sensing his predicament, he grabbed a hostage and returned to the street. At this point, he was being chased by employees from the auto parts store, McDonalds and a member of Houston’s finest.
Somewhere along the way he lost the hostage. He had to do something so he hopped into the car of an 18-year-old, Lawrence Blackwell, pointed his gun at him and yelled, “DRIVE!”
Blackwell drove him to a nearby condominium where the harried bandit abandoned the car and literally kicked down the door of Miriam Trashell. Miriam apparently was expecting trouble because she immediately started firing her pistol at the intruder, who naturally returned fire – luckily neither hit anything. Houstonians tend to get a bit testy with the temperature and humidity are high.
Shortly, he had enough of Miriam Trashell and dashed through the remnants of her front door onto the parking lot where he accosted a driver who’d just entered the lot. However, he didn’t get very far because he somehow couldn’t get the car through the security gate. So, he dumped his second car and again took-off on foot.
He ran straight to a nearby Dairy Queen where he leaped into the cab of a meat truck, pointed the gun at the driver and between huffs and puffs demanded the truck. The brave driver yanked the gun out of his hand and the befuddled thief escaped out the side door.
He staggered into a nearby residential neighborhood while being chased on foot by a Houston policeman and employees from McDonalds, the auto parts store, a Dairy Queen meat truck driver and, presumably, the still irate Miriam Trashell.
The poor guy- I’m beginning to feel sorry for him at this point- jumps a fence where he is attacked and bitten by a large weimaraner. He then beats a hasty, albeit bloody, retreat back over the fence where he runs headlong into the growing posse.
When last heard, he was being treated for minor injuries at Ben Taub General Hospital and obviously under arrest. Oh yes, McDonalds did get their money back.
Inspector Clouseau could not have planned it better.
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