It Takes A Thief (or two) BTO - Not Fragile This is the best innocent adolescent criminal story around. This is about a really good friend of mine. He weighed in at around 220 at 14 years old and was always a really nice and considerate guy to everyone. He was last guy on the block you would expect to be performing any kind of criminal act. He came across his size honestly as his Dad was a monster of a guy who in his youth had played professional football. Even though his Dad was intimidating to look at he was like this big happy bear. Like father, like son? Well I guess my friend was getting a little bored with the stand up guy routine and the circumstances were just right on this day. He and another one of his pals were making their way around the neighborhood when they noticed the keys in the ignition of a car. They hoped in the car and began a joy ride through the back streets of suburbia. About 15 minutes into the ride they found they were being pursued by the cops. I have to wonder at this point just where did the decision making skills go? In order to elude the cops they chose to go through a 100 yard path. This path was in one small way a good choice, because it was a quick skip to the next group of streets in this area. They could get a jump on the heat. The downside to this was that the path was only as wide as the space between the wheels and there was a deep ditch on either side. I guess you can see what kind of problem this posed. Then to top it off and make life easy for the cops. There was a fence on either side that left about 4 inches to work with on either side of the car. There they were sitting in this car motionless and trapped. I wish I could have seen the cops' faces. I found out about this whole episode the next day but it was an event I witnessed the night of the incident that triggered my curiosity. As I rode my bicycle home (like most 15 year old kids without cars) from where ever I was that afternoon, I rode past this friends place. As I passed I saw my friends monster sized Dad holding my friend pinned to the garage by the neck with his feet about 8 inches off the ground. The funny thing was that as I rode by they both saw me, they both waved and without missing a beat they continued the emotion filled confrontation. My friend went back to his role as an upstanding citizen and now of course he is dealing with children of his own. What goes around...