- Pamela Ball bit the hand that was trying to force her into the trunk of her car, but she doesn't believe that's what saved her.
Ball credits the dozen neighbors who heard her screams in the alley behind her Andersonville home and chased away the two men who had just robbed a jewelry store after tying up the clerk and were planning to get away in Ball's car Monday afternoon.
“There were 12 neighbors in the alley with cell phones,’’ said Ball, in her early 60s. “One neighbor even chased them and one neighbor grabbed me.’’
The neighbors called police? They neighbors chased the suspects? The neighbors identified the criminals to the police?
How very....unusual. At least unusual in Chicago. And unusual from the usual fare we hear in the media about "uncooperative" witnesses and victims who tell us "You're the police, figure it out." It's almost like a functional segment of society doesn't want to put up with the criminals and is actually eager to see them imprisoned for their crimes instead of embraced, coddled, glorified, sheltered, and supported by a dysfunctional structure.
Too bad it isn't contagious.