Friday, January 21, 2011

Family Friday - Grandma Ruth

Today for Family Friday we are starring a wonderful woman, Grandma Ruth, who caught 2 armed robbers. Amazing! This is just one story about this remarkable woman. L came across the news article recently and thought it would be a good one to share.

From the Rocky Mountain News, the headline on page 5 reads "Keen Eye and Courage Nab 2 Who Admit Act" - and they are talking about Grandma Ruth. Grandma Ruth was in her dress shop on the phone when 2 robbers walked in, and one pulled a pistol on her. She screamed and they ran out. At the time, she told the police she would never forget the man who pulled a gun on her.

About a week later she boarded the trolley and sat down across the aisle from - yep, you guessed it - two very unlucky and dangerous criminals. John Arnold and Harold Williams were the men who tried to rob Grandma's dress shop, Adrian Fem Shoppe. The men got off the trolley, Grandma then asked the driver to stop. She started to follow the men, thought better of it, and went to the police station. Patrolman Frank Parisi went looking for these criminals and finally saw them about 15 minutes later. Not only had they attempted to rob the dress shop, they had stolen $32.80 robbing another woman, burglarized several rooms where they were staying, including one where they got the gun. Not to mention they were both about 4 months out of prison.

I met Grandma Ruth and she was incredible. Captain Flor described her as a "truly remarkable woman. I've seen men shake like a leaf but she was just as cool as possible in pointing them out, and telling Arnold: 'You're the man'!" After that, the confessions apparently started flowing.

Grandma Ruth - great woman, who caught (and scared off) 2 dangerous criminals in 1952!

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