Posted on 03/22/2008 1:07:20 PM PDT by kingattax
Thieves, robbers: Stay away from Camas, Wash. It's Mary Chamberlain's town. The 67-year-old had picked up a friend at a hospital Wednesday and was driving by the local KFC when an employee came running out, chasing a man and yelling "He robbed us!"
Many people might have called 911 and left it at that. Not Chamberlain. The employee gave up the chase, but Chamberlain started driving after the man. "I thought I'd slow him down, anyway," she said.
The suspect kept shouting "I didn't do anything!" prompting two men to come out of the local Kingdom Hall and ask what was up. They called police. Chamberlain stayed in pursuit.
"I followed him on down the road. He ducked into the yards. I couldn't find him. I figured he was going yard-to-yard-to-yard jumping fences."
She eventually spotted him trying to climb a fence.
"I jumped out of the car," she said with a casual air, like the grandmother of 12 she is. She said she didn't stop to think whether the suspect was armed.
"I pulled him off the fence. He didn't swing at me. I just told him, 'Just give it up. You haven't got a chance.' I had my arm around his neck, and I was going to try and bring his arm up behind him. It looks easy on TV. Believe me it's not."
The suspect was about the same height as Chamberlain, 5-foot-6, with an average build. The pair ended up locked together in a slow dance moving toward the gate of the fence.
"I wasn't going to let go," she said. Both could hear sirens by now. "I told him, 'Just give it up,' then the police showed up and hollered at him to get down."
Police arrested Joshua G. Crowley, 22, of Washougal, Wash. He is accused of robbing the KFC at knifepoint, said Camas Police spokesman Mitch Lackey.
Lackey doesn't recommend acts of vigilantism such as Chamberlain's.
Chamberlain is retired from a job at United Parcel Service and, as a regular customer of the restaurant that was robbed, says she just felt the need to defend it.
"You're messing with one of my favorite places," she said.
Her four kids think she's crazy, Chamberlain said. But she wants them to tell this robbery story to the grandkids.
"They'll know they'll always be safe with Grandma."
Granny needs to get a gun before she tries that again. Having said that, I applaud her efforts.
Grandma is a bad ass!
Typical white person.
Being nabbed by a granny will not go over well in the Big House.
A gun will only make her more deadly. It looks like granny is trouble without one.
Go granny, go granny, go granny, go.
Granny sounds like a FREEPER! ;-)
Bad guy got the overrun by grandma, just the other night at KFC, you can say but no such thing can happen, but for us at Colonel Sanders we believe.
Being a good citizen has become “vigilantism”.
Just damn, you beat me to it.
Perhaps “typical white granny”.
Much better than those treasonous “Grannies For Peace”.
~~~ Her four kids think she's crazy, Chamberlain said. But she wants them to tell this robbery story to the grandkids.
"They'll know they'll always be safe with Grandma." ~~~
"(type - type - type)...and, he had robbed my favorite KFC at knifepoint, so...."
LOL, good one.
“Grandma is a bad ass!”
That would make a nice bumper sticker.
It started with those hooligans who called themselves the Minuteman Project. Even GWB thinks they are.
Sounds like her kids are going to have to find some guts somewhere, they ought to try and emulate their mom, the grandkids got it!!
"You're messing with one of my favorite places," she said.
ROFL! "This is MY HOUSE, dogbreath!!"
"I pulled him off the fence. He didn't swing at me. I just told him, 'Just give it up. You haven't got a chance.' I had my arm around his neck, and I was going to try and bring his arm up behind him. It looks easy on TV. Believe me it's not."
I want to move next door to this lady.
Quick wits and courage may have skipped a generation in that family. But, the grandkids are going to be proud to have the coolest granny around. Ha.
p.s. Thank you for your service to our country. God bless.
You don't want to mess with people who slinged freight for 40 years.
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