Excitement at the Orrex house this evening!

[Orrex]

HouseofKewpie and I had put the boys to bed around 8:30, and we were watching TV downstairs. Scrubs had just finished, and we were chatting about something or other when we heard a commotion outside. A woman was greatly upset and begging someone to call 911!

We rushed to the foyer and turned on the porchlight--we didn't recognize her, but she was barefoot and alone, clearly freaked out and sobbing, so we let her in and shut off the porchlight and the lights in the foyer. We took her into the living room and sat her on the couch with a glass of water and a box of tissues. I was already on the phone with 911 by this time and explained the situation, then handed the phone to her. She talked to them for a minute, still sobbing, before hanging up.

She then called her brother, spoke very briefly, and got hysterical before hanging up again. We talked to her calmly and made sure that she was okay, and we waited for the police to arrive, which took about three minutes! Two big cops came in, and HouseofKewpie and I left the room while they talked to her. At last they told her that they'd take her home, and one officer walked her to the car while the other spoke with us for a few minutes.

He thanked us for calling and for taking her in. Apparently she'd had an altercation with her boyfriend resulting from some kind of interaction with her ex-husband. She and the boyfriend got into a fight while he was driving, and she tried several times to jump out of the car. He got her by the throat and was running red lights until he had to stop, at which point she bashed him in the face and was able to escape, losing both shoes in the process.

She walked for quite a few blocks, not knowing where she was, and crying out for someone to call the police. We were apparently the first ones to hear and/or respond, which I find a little troubling. She was basically unharmed but very upset. To be honest, she was kind of lucky that this happened here, in a fairly decent neighborhood. If she'd been lost, disoriented, and stumbling around barefoot in a rougher part of town, who knows what might have happened next?

Shortly after the police departed, our phone rang. We let the machine get it, but there was no message, so I star-69'ed and called back. It was her mother--I gather that the brother lives with her--who was in a panic trying to find out what was going on! I told her that her daughter (who's 34, incidentally) had left with the police a few minutes earlier. She thanked me profusely for helping her daughter and for calling back, but really it just seemed like the right thing to do.

The police assured us that the guy poses no threat to us--he didn't know where the woman was, and I'm pretty sure that she didn't either. Still, I've seen two cruisers go down the street since that time, so I'm glad to know that they're keeping an eye on the area.

Very exciting! What did you do with your evening?

[LeftyFingerPop]

1. You did a good thing by helping her out...

many people would not have.

I'm happy to hear that the guy poses no threat to you.

I bet you got an adrenaline rush from the whole experience!

Really, good job...very kind of you. :)

[Orrex]

3. It was a bit of a jumpstart, yes...

HouseofKewpie mentioned afterwards that, if I hadn't been there, she'd have called 911 but wouldn't have opened the door. I think that's a wise course of action. Our whole front porch is visible from inside our front door, as is about a 60-foot stretch of sidewalk, and it was pretty clear that the woman was alone. Even if someone had been hiding in the bushes, our porch is big enough for us to slam the door if they'd tried to rush the door.

Since she mentioned that he'd grabbed her by the throat, I imagine that the police might have taken her to the hospital for a quick once-over.

I'm just glad that she was (mostly) unharmed.

[skygazer]

2. Wow, that poor woman!

She was very fortunate to stumble upon the two of you - thank you for helping her. Not too many years ago, it could have been me in that situation and it's nice to know there are people who will help a stranger in need.

Well done. :applause:

[Orrex]

4. I'm honestly a little troubled that she had to walk so far

It's possible that she hadn't been calling out for her entire distance she'd walked, and she did mention that she'd been looking for a house with the porchlight on, but such houses aren't usually uncommon in my neck of the residential woods.

However, the neighborhood does have a lot of older residents, so I can understand why some of them might have been anxious about opening the door.


Curiously, when I called 911, I got as far as "there's a woman on the porch asking us to call the police," and the dispatcher already seemed to know about it.

"You're at 123 Main Street?" he asked, which I confirmed. "Did the woman jump out of a moving car?"

Strange--I imagine that someone else must have called shortly beforehand, perhaps a witness who'd seen her escape?