By Brad Kessie – bio | email
BILOXI, MS (WLOX) – A chain falls off an elderly man's bike. Three people are there to help the bike rider repair the damage. When the work is done, the volunteers demand payment. So, the man pulls out his wallets and offers to give the men a gift for their assistance.
It sounds like a wonderful holiday story, until you hear what happens next.
According to Pascagoula police, the men pushed the elderly man to the ground. They started punching him. And then, they dashed off with his wallet.
Are you kidding me?
Four days later, a 77-year-old woman was walking through the parking lot at a Pascagoula grocery store. A man approached her. As you can probably guess, he didn't want to know what time it was.
Here's how a police report described the incident. "The man walked up, pushed her to the ground and grabbed her purse. She held onto the purse and the man began jerking it trying to get it away from her. As he jerked the purse, he dragged the lady several feet before she relinquished possession of the purse. The man then jumped into the passenger side of an unidentified black colored car which sped out of the parking lot. As the black car left the parking lot, it nearly stuck a pedestrian."
This is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year. And for most of us, it is. So many of us get together with family and friends and celebrate our good fortune.
Yet, every day, we're reminded that evil lurks in the most unassuming places.
For instance, last week, surveillance video had us all shaking our heads in disbelief. We all watched as a man pulled up to a Pascagoula gas station, grabbed the store's Christmas tree, threw it into the bed of his pickup truck, and took off.
Police said they nabbed the Christmas tree bandit a couple of days later. The decorative plant the Grinch allegedly stole was in his home.
And then there's this story.
The Pass Christian Rotary Club collected holiday presents for needy children. But over the weekend, somebody decided he or she needed the gifts more than the kids.
I hope the kids somehow get their gifts. I hope the two elderly victims in Pascagoula recover from their minor injuries. I even hope the suspects in these cases can learn from their apparent mistakes.
Most of all, I hope all of you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, because the holiday season is the most wonderful time of the year.
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