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TITLE: Starting Over By Pam Smith 08/05/07 |
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Starting over, that was what she and her daughter were doing. It well after midnight and she had been driving since seven the evening before. Kara had planned to drive through the night so Jill would sleep through most of the trip. She chose to leave Savannah after the trauma they had experienced over the past year.
As she drove north toward the D.C. area, she thought back. The season of trauma had started over a year ago. It was supposed to be a good time in their lives. She and Joe survived a separation the year before, and came out stronger. Their marriage was so much better. They had found a great house to buy. It was in the country on an acre yet still close enough to town that the commute would not be long. It had a swimming pool and a playhouse for Jill. Escrow was on track and closing would be on Thursday, May 1.
However, the events of Sunday April 27 changed all that. Kara remembered it started like many other Sundays. Joe was at work. He owned a stereo shop at a local flea market. Once they renovated the new house and moved in, Joe planned to open up a storefront in town. He missed Sundays at church with his family.
Kara took Jill to the early church service, so that they could attend a special Kids’ Day at the Civic Center. They arrived as the festivities began at noon. Jill had a blast over the next four hours going from booth to booth. She played games and made crafts.
When Kara and Jill arrived home, Kara prepared Sloppy Joes for supper while Jill sorted out all the things she had received. Jill’s favorite was a two-foot pencil.
After eating, Jill took her bath and then played in her room. Kara was on the computer in the back bedroom when Jill came up.
Kara remembered her exact words. “Mommy, someone’s at the door. It’s not a stranger.”
Kara walked to the door after telling Jill to brush her teeth. She opened the door. A muscularly built black man with a short afro stood there.
He asked, “Is Joe home?”
She replied, “He is not available at the moment.”
She started to close the door when he shoved it open and pointed a black semi-automatic pistol in her face. Kara had stumbled back a couple of steps by the force of the door.
“Lay down. Don’t look at me,” he demanded.
She lay down on the living room floor as he directed her. He then demanded that she call the children to the front of the house. Kara obeyed. The intruder also called for Jill to come.
When Jill did not come, he cocked the gun and said, “I’m going to give her to the count of three then I’m going to blow your head off.”
“Look, she is only five. She is supposed to be brushing her teeth. Do you really think she is going to come up here when a stranger is yelling at her mother?”
The assailant thought about her words. He walked over to her and told her to get up. He pressed the barrel of the gun in her back between her shoulder blades. They walked to the back bathroom. Kara scooped up Jill and shielded her from him. At gunpoint, he walked her back to the living room and forced them to lie on the floor.
Jill asked, “What does he want, Mommy?”
“I don’t know. We will be okay. Let’s ask God to protect us.”
Kara prayed with her five year old and gently comforted her. Within her own thoughts, she wondered how the students and staff would cope if she died. Kara was the nurse at a local elementary school. It had not been quite a year since the school had lost Debbie Thomas. She was the assistant in the media center. Debbie died from injuries sustained when she was carjacked at the Wal-Mart gas station. Kara’s thoughts about a negative outcome were replaced in a split second.
The Lord spoke to her. “I am here. You will be all right.” God gave her the gift of peace. The Holy Spirit would see her and her family through it.
Kara could hear the intruder searching the house. She lifted her head toward the door and her purse on the desk. Her cell phone was in it. She thought about making an attempt to escape or reach her cell phone. Once again, she heard the Lord tell her to trust him; and not to try it.
The assailant called someone on a phone. “You #@$%^&*. Where is it? You know where it is. Tell me where to find it!” The tirade continued. Kara thought that he might be on the phone her husband. She would later find out the truth.
The intruder returned to her. Kara felt the gun in her back again. “Stay quiet. Someone pulled up. Who is it?”
She replied with a question, “Is it a blue van?”
“Yes.”
“That’s Rick. He works with Joe.”
“Will he come in?’
“Not normally. He is just swapping cars.”
The attacker seemed satisfied and left her again on the living room floor. When he returned a short time later, he forced her up again.
Kara picked up Jill and buried her face in Kara’s shoulder after he said, “Don’t look at me”. He walked her through the galley kitchen to the dining room. In the dining room, she saw that there was a second one in the house. Thankfully, God had stopped her from trying to escape. The second one had been watching her. They had her lay face down on the floor near the table.
The intruder came and dropped the family’s safe near Kara’s feet, “What’s the combination?”
Kara replied, “I don’t know it.” She never opened the safe. Joe did. She knew that she had the numbers written down somewhere, but did not remember exactly where.
“Don’t lie to me lady!”
“I’m not.”
“You’re going to make this rough.” He growled. She felt his heavy shoe connect with the side of her head near her left ear.
“Joe opens it. He keeps the combination in his wallet. I can call him to get the numbers.”
“No.” He kicked Kara in the head again. He then turned to his cohort, “Hold the gun on her. I’m going to get my knife and take the kid.”
Kara quickly said, “No. If I knew the combination, I would tell you. Life is more important than that. I don’t know it. I have some money in my purse in there.” She pointed.
He said, “I’ll take that,” meaning the engagement ring on her finger. He also got her purse.
For a time, he did not speak to her. The accomplice said something. One of them pulled Jill out from under her and pushed the gun her back. Joe was home. He opened the door and came in not suspecting anything was amiss. When he turned after locking the door, the larger assailant was pointing a gun at him.
“Drop the bag and get on the ground.”
“Ok, man.”
“Where’s your gun?” He demanded. He had questioned Kara about Joe’s normal routine after leaving work, including weapons he carried and stopping by the bank.
“In the bag. Take what want.”
“What’s the combination to the safe?”
“The code is in my wallet, which is in the bag.”
The assailant handed him the wallet while keeping the gun against the back of his neck. Joe tried to read the numbers but it was dark and found it difficult to read. “Stop jerking us around.” One of them said when the combination did not work.
Joe offered to do it for them but they refused. The next attempt was successful in opening it. One then asked Joe for some rope or duct tape. He told them that there was possibly some downstairs. The assailant found some duct tape and proceeded to bind the family’s hands and feet with the tape.
The larger thug asked for the keys to the van. Joe replied that they were probably on the floor by the door. He searched not finding them. Joe then suggested they might be in his pocket, which they were. The two then left in Joe’s van.
Joe was quickly able to free himself from the tape. He then cut his wife and daughter free. Joe held Kara for a couple of minutes before going to the phone to call the police. They found all the phone wires had been pulled out or cut. Both their cell phones were also gone. Looking at the living room phone, Kara thought she could hold the wires together long enough to make the call. Joe was able to get a dial tone as she squeezed the wires together.
When the police arrived a few minutes later, they began explaining what had happened. One was a female officer who proceeded to take Jill outside as they recounted the crime. Chris and his wife came over from their home next door when they saw the police. They offered to take Jill back to their home while Joe and Kara waited for the police detective and the forensics team to arrive. Rick came over after Chris called him. He apologized profusely when he realized that Kara and Jill were being held at gunpoint when he had been by earlier. Kara reminded him that he was not at fault or to blame for it.
Rick listened to the events that had transpired. He added seeing Rob, a former employee of Joe’s, pass him on the road not ten minutes after the ordeal had begun. Joe realized that Rob must have been the one to drop off the crooks and the one that the assailant was talking to on the phone during the robbery. They shared the information with the detective.
For the next four hours, Joe and Kara went over the events with the detective and walked through with the crime scene investigator. Kara asked if it would disturb the evidence if she used the bathroom. The investigator said to use the hall bathroom. While in the bathroom, Kara looked at her left ear and jaw. It was swollen and black. She walked out and asked the investigator if he needed to document the injury. He said it was that the best to wait a couple of days. That would be when the bruises where most colorful.
When the investigator began packing his equipment, Kara thought that he was missing some things. He took photos of the tape and the safe. He had dusted the front door as well as the safe for fingerprints. However, he never went into the master bedroom where the safe had been stored to collect evidence. She asked, “You are already finished. What about the bedroom?”
He coldly replied, “We have enough. I would have done more if we were standing over bodies?”
Kara walked away. She felt like that he punched her in the stomach. She did not understand his thinking. Because this was not a murder investigation, he did not have to work hard on this case. That was not the last time she heard those words. About ten days after the incident, Kara and Joe went to the police station to speak with the detective. When they confronted him about not interviewing Rob or working on the case in any way, the detective replied, “I’ve been busy with Orange Crush (a college event on Tybee). I would be handling this case differently if we had been standing over bodies.”
Joe and Kara let the comment slide, not wanting to upset the detective until the case was solved. They did discuss it at home. They were staying with Joe’s brother since they no longer felt safe in their own home.
The police were not the only ones giving them hassles. The homeowner’s policy only covered a small percentage of the total lost that day. The auto insurance company did not want to cover the cost of rekeying both vans the family owned. After much discussion, they finally did, realizing it would be cost efficient to rekey than pay for a stolen vehicle. The robbers had the keys to both vans. Joe’s van, which the criminals used to get away, was found abandoned three days after the crime. The van was processed then towed to an auto shop to be rekeyed and cleaned up. Two weeks later the van was not finished. Joe and Kara finally went to get the van on the day promised only to find they never cleaned the van. It had crime tape and fingerprint dust all over it.
Joe and Kara, after much discussion, opted not to purchase the home. They needed to rethink many things in their life. The mortgage company agent called leaving a rude message about the cancellation. The realtor for the seller called as well as her attorney threatening them. Kara spoke with the mortgage agent and his supervisor regarding his insensitivity. Joe spoke with the realtor and the attorney.
Kara ended up writing a letter to their congressional representative about the lack of help from the police department as well as the insurance company. It did little to help their case. Two months after the crime, the second detective on the case called to show them a line-up. Joe and Kara separately identified the two. Arrest warrants were issued. It took another two months to arrest one of them. They went to the preliminary hearing in October and testified before the grand jury in December. They were once again upset by ‘the system.’ The only charges against the two were armed robbery and grand theft auto.
Kara had spent hours researching the Georgia criminal codes. The District Attorney missed several charges including two counts of felony kidnapping, assault, and arms charges since both were convicted felons.
The other was arrested after a traffic stop in January. Nevertheless, allowed out on bail immediately even though he had served time twice before for felonies. It almost seemed as if the judicial system was raping them repeatedly. The prosecutor’s office and police did not inform them of the arrest until after the bail hearing. The jail staff did not call to inform them of his release. By this point, though, they were accustomed to it.
Therefore, Rob and Kara decided to leave the Savannah area. They no longer felt safe in the community with the conspirators to the crimes on the street. Joe traveled to Atlanta for a job interview but never came home. That was two months ago. He had died in a car crash on his way home.
Kara quickly sold the trailer park they owned. Joe’s brother owned a pawnshop and offered to sell the various items left from Joe’s store at the flea market. Kara helped him take the things to the shop and she had a couple of yard sales. What did not sell she donated to Goodwill. The only things she kept were her and Jill’s clothes and some photos and small sentimental items. It all fit in the van.
When she said she was starting over, she truly meant it. She had survived the past year. She would return to Savannah for the trial whenever they finally scheduled it but she did not intend to ever return to Savannah after that.
She looked back at Jill. She was sound asleep in her car seat. She smiled. Kara knew that she had come out stronger after the home invasion. God proved to her that he could protect her through the storm. Giving her immeasurable peace. She would find ways to share that testimony with others. From the inner peace she felt, Jill remaining calm and quiet, her ability to calm the intruders, knowing that it was better to stay instead of attempting to escape, Joe, who normal has his gun in hand to put away, had placed it in his duffel bag, it was all a ‘God thing.’ There was no other explanation.
Kara pulled over to fill up with gas. After she filled up, Kara returned to the interstate. She had about two more hours before reaching Arlington. As she drove on, her thoughts drifted to the mixture of emotions she was experiencing - the sadness of leaving friends. She would miss a few, the nervousness of now being a single mom in a new city. The gladness or maybe more like relief to be away from the house that held the memories of the crime. However, the emotion that she mostly felt was disappointment and distrust.
She knew that it was not right. She was praying for help but it was so difficult not feel that way. So many people had let her family down. A lifelong friend of Joe’s had chosen business over friendship by continuing to purchase merchandise from one of the masterminds to the robbery. No one from her church family provided comfort after the robbery. The list could go on. Yet the most of her disgust was for the law enforcement system. The folks that were supposed to serve and protect really did not care. They had seen it with all the officers as well as the prosecutors that they had dealt with on their case. She would never trust police again.
Around seven, Kara pulled into a Cracker Barrel in Arlington. She and Jill ate breakfast. Kara took a catnap in the van as Jill played with her LeapFrog. At nine, they met Mike Sealer, the realtor Kara had been working with via phone and email.
“I have a few places for you to see. They are in the Allendale area. It is a suburb of D.C. to the southwest.”
“Sounds good. Thank you.”
Mike showed Kara and Jill the homes. At each home, Kara asked Jill about her opinions. She wanted to make sure Jill felt comfortable with their new home. The third house they looked at was great. Both Kara and Jill liked it.
*** This is based in reality - My family really experienced this (The only part that is fictionalized is the part in which my husband died. He is alive and well. We have relocated 3 times since the incident.)
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