What Would Make You Call 911? Two Life and Death Stories
This photo is a joke-if it were real-call the fuzz and follow the car.
How much do you see and ignore? How much do you mind your own business and when do you step in to prevent a violent act? What would you have to see before you called 911? What’s the difference between being a good Samaritan and being Nosy? Is it ok to ignore domestic violence if it happens in a car?
When I first read of the boy abducted in Quebec and found alive bound and gagged inside a sealed oil drum I didn’t want to post the story. It’s an amazing story with a great ending but it was almost too cinematic, dramatic and fulled of community co-operation. Then the other night I saw part of the special on ABC about the kidnapping and death of Denise Amber Lee and I was struck by their common thread of community involvement.
Denise Amber Lee and the 8 year old boy both tried like hell to live, escape and attract people’s attention. Mrs Lee was the daughter of a detective and knew what to do. The 8 year old Canadian boy lived, but not Denise. The 911 system in Quebec functioned MUCH better than the 911 system in Denise’s home state of Florida. One could argue the primary difference is the 911 systems’ response. But in the ABC special at least 2 witnesses came forward and were interviewed saying they saw Mrs Lee struggling in the back of the car and they wrote it off as a domestic violence situation. Rueful and doleful they wished they’d have called 911 after the fact.
I’d never ask anyone to step into a fight and risk personal harm. But pick up the flicking phone and call 911 if you see ANYTHING weird. Follow your gut-follow that car. Bad shit happens and apparently if we stopped minding our own business lives can be saved. An 8 year old boy, was found alive bound and gagged inside a sealed oil drum, but he was ALIVE. If 1 or 2 more people called 911, maybe 21 year old mother of two, Denise Amber Lee would be alive too.
Witnesses, police foil abduction of Quebec boy – Eight-year-old was bound, gagged stuffed into trunk of car
Jenny Wagler and Bradley Bouzane, Canwest News Service Published: Wednesday, July 16, 2008
An eight-year-old boy who police say was snatched from the street, stuffed into the trunk of a car and later bolted into an oil drum, was rescued on Tuesday after a witness trailed the alleged kidnapper’s vehicle.
Ryan Murphy, 24, was stopped at a traffic light when he saw what he believed was a boy trying to escape from the trunk, which was partially open. He trailed the car until it stopped in a driveway and then called police.
When officers arrived at the address they found the boy tied up in the building’s boiler room inside an oil drum.
“I’m so happy the child got saved — you couldn’t ask for more,” said Mr. Murphy, a carpenter whose quick thinking was praised by police last night.
The drama started at about 6 p.m. when a woman in Levis, just outside Quebec City, called police to report that she had witnessed a man force a young boy into the trunk of his car and speed off.
Alec Beaulieu, another child who was in the neighbourhood, was one of many who saw the alleged abduction.
“We saw the man get out of his car. He looked really mad, he took the little boy in his arms,” Alec told reporters. “The boy was screaming and struggling, then the man opens the trunk, closes it and takes off.”
Sonie St-Pierre said she attempted to intercept the man’s vehicle after watching him force the boy into the trunk.
“At a time like that we do what our instinct tells us to do,” said Ms. St-Pierre, who immediately contacted police when the man evaded her. “My instinct was telling me, ‘Charge and forget about your car, try to save him.’ … I will always bear the memory of this man putting a small child in the trunk of the car. I will always carry that scene with me.”
About 30 minutes later, Mr. Murphy was driving home when a movement caught his eye. He had just stopped at a traffic light.
The movement came from the trunk of a green 2004 Chevrolet Cavalier diagonally ahead of him in the right-hand lane.
“The trunk opened and I saw something move, and then I saw the trunk open more and I saw a child,” he said. “At that moment, I saw a man get out of the car quite rapidly and move towards the trunk to close it.”
Questions, he said, flashed through his mind. Were there lots of people in the car? Was it a way to fit an extra person in?
But as he looked through the car windows, he said, he saw it was empty except for the driver.
“It happened so quickly,” he said, “but the impression I had was that the child was trying to escape.”
So when the car peeled off a little too quickly as the light turned green, Mr. Murphy trailed it, following for just over a kilometre.
Mr. Murphy slowed the car and watched it stop in front of a building, its engine idling.
“I was trying to figure out if he was going to stay there or if he was continuing on. I wanted to determine if I needed to continue the chase,” he said.
But the car did not seem to be moving, and with the surge of rush hour traffic around him, Mr. Murphy decided to dash home and call the police, he said.
“If I’d known, if I’d heard on the news that a child had been kidnapped, it would have happened differently,” he said. “But at that point, I had no idea and I really needed to contact the police.”
Minutes later, he said, he spoke with the police, who took the information seriously, having matched it to descriptions in the earlier call.
Police arrived on scene a few moments later and located the car, which had its licence plate flipped to the wrong side, said provincial police spokesman Sergeant Gregory Gomez del Prado.
Police then entered a building and found the boy in the boiler room in the basement, where he was bound and gagged but did not appear injured.
“He was safe and sound, but was transported to hospital,” he said. “He was tied up inside the oil tank.”
Police have arrested the building’s 50-year-old janitor in connection with the case, and charged him with abduction, abduction of a child under 14 and confinement.
Sgt. Gomez del Prado said there was no apparent link between the suspect and the boy.
“For now, it doesn’t seem there was a relationship between the two, but we know for sure that the suspect lived on the same street in Levis as the boy,” he said.
Sgt. Gomez del Prado said witnesses’ calls were crucial to the rescue operation.
“Without the help of the public,” he said, “I don’t know how we would have found the boy.”
National Post and Canwest News Service
COMPARE THE ABOVE STORY WITH DENISE AMBER LEE’s BELOW
Below is taken from the official Denise Amber Lee website, poke around online to find the complete story and more info. Here’s a good story about it on ABC, lets hope the link lasts.
Welcome to DeniseAmberLee.org.
In January 2008, Denise Lee was kidnapped in broad daylight, and struggled for her life for several hours. In that time, 4 911 calls were placed, including one from Denise herself, and one from a courageous bystander, Jane Kowalski, who provided an exact location of Denise to authorities while she was on the phone for several minutes. Because those 911 calls were not all properly handled, it was possible for Denise’s rapist and murderer to commit his crimes. She left behind two small boys, a husband, and a loving family. While obviously, the 911 call center did not intend for this to happen, or actually “pull the trigger”, evidence shows that there were available resources to save her life, and they were not used. Denise’s story is not the only on of its kind, a few months later Brittany Zimmermann, the poor college student in Wisconsin who called 911 with her cell phone, and when a dispatcher failed to issue a return call, became another unfortunate murder victim. These are merely examples of a splintered system without any national regulations, which we strive to remedy. WHO?: The Foundation is run currently by Denise’s widowed husband, Nathan Lee, and is supported by his friends, family, and members of this site.
Let’s unite and make our country a safer place by improving our 911 system.