Caution When Shopping / Prayer Request

Here is an email that I sent out earlier tonight to my friends and family. I wanted to pass it along to caution you ladies and gents: All, I am emailing my friends and family to spread the word to the ladies to be extra cautious these days and especially those that live and shop in the Mesquite area. As you know with the struggling economy, crime is up. On Tuesday afternoon, me and the HR manager had a talk with one of my employees in a desperate plea to get her to go home from work, because she was not feeling well. She had not felt well for a week, but she is very dedicated to the company and her work. My employee came by my office about 2PM and had decided to go ahead and go to Target (at Town East Blvd in Mesquite) and get some medicine and then go home and rest for a while. After making her purchases, she was walking back to her vehicle at approximately 2:30PM and a guy came up very quickly behind her and another one in front of her to grab her purse. Her instinct was to pull her purse closer to her and when she did, because the guy had such a good grip on her purse, he basically had an opportunity to wrap his arms around her and body slam her to the ground. She hit her head pretty hard and he was off with her purse and keys (her keys fell back into her purse). It happened so fast she couldn't even hit the panic button on her key fob. Fortunately, there was a witness, whom she thought at first, they might were going to do something to her because she felt like they were acting a little odd. The witness acted very promptly in calling the police, providing the license plate, and vehicle description. The police just happened to be on the service road to Interstate 30 and got on the highway and they were able to apprehend the suspects. There were actually 4 suspects (with 3 young children in the vehicle). Two confessed to the crime. Both the witness and my employee were both so shook up over the whole ordeal, neither of them could remember what the suspects looked like in the line up (only an hour later), because it all happened within 20 seconds or less. The police have enough evidence and video surveillance from Target to convict the criminals and I believe they will pursue aggravated assault and robbery. My employee got all of her belongings back and she is doing better, although she still just keeps reliving in her mind the horrible ordeal. She is young and from a very small rural area and her family is not here local, so it was hard for her the first 2 nights to be alone. Please pray for healing and security for my employee as she learns to accept and feel safe again to go about outdoors during the daytime and not feel so vulnerable. Please share this with your female friends and family so they will know to be extra cautious. I know that we sometimes just take it for granted that we are safe during broad daylight. With prices going up so high right now, many people are struggling to make ends meet and with that just comes additional crime. The police stated that they have seen a rise due to the economy. Just this morning I heard that a young ROTC student was mugged and robbed while he was having a seizure downtown near the Greyhound bus station. Hugs, Lindy

Oh my goodness that is just terrible. Of course I will keep her in my thoughts and prayers!! Thanks for the reminder, sometimes we get complacent. Anna