Four Corners Creep Of The Week: The Rude Lady

Votes were a little slow last week, but overall Michael Anthony Douglas, as you can see is definitely an alleged creep.

I apologize for the delay on this week's creep. Things have been busy, busy, busy......

This week's creep is not a creep that is once again "ripped from the headlines", but rather one that I had encountered yesterday. So, for the purpose of this story, she shall be called "The Rude Lady" AKA "The Money Order Lady".

It may not be a crime in the literal sense, but I will let you all decide if she is a creep or not. Okay, on with the story.....

Every day I stop at the local convienence store on my way to get my son from school to purchase a drink. The afternoons are still pretty warm here, so nothing beats an ice cold beverage. Apparently, the gentleman behind me felt the same way. Enter "The Rude Lady". She had just stepped in line in front of me and the gentleman. She had a list that she handed to the cashier, different amounts for different money orders. Her list contained approximately 6 separate money orders.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't mind waiting in line. But if you have ever been in line behind someone getting a money order, you know they take awhile. I leave in plenty of time to account for a long line or any other mishap that could delay me in picking up my son from school.

The cashier kindly asked the lady- and I stress kindly because she really was very polite and professional about it-if she would mind letting me and the gentleman go ahead of her, given the fact that we both only had a soda each that would take about 30 seconds for her to ring up and just send us on our way. Of course, any normal person-myself included-would have said "sure". The Rude/Money Order Lady, with the maturity of a six-year-old said this:

"Why should I? I was here first."

So as you can see, basic courtesy and human kindness are running rampant in these parts. If it was a crime, I would charge her with failure to get a bank account, or if I wanted to get even, I would just charge her with a 5 pound bag of ice upside her head.

But I'm a nice person.

And, just to add for the record, if it wasn't for those ridiculous plastic straw wrappers that are impossible to get off of your straw-I would have been in line first. SO THERE!!!

Deadly Weapons, Innocent Lives, and Intent

When we think of deadly weapons, we usually think of guns, knives-things of that nature.

What about your car? Would you ever consider your car a “deadly weapon”? Your car, in and of itself, may not be a deadly weapon, but add alcohol to the driver-“ammunition”, if you will-suddenly the car becomes a dangerous, deadly weapon.

We have the DUI task-force and checkpoints out every holiday. We have organizations such as Mother’s Against Drunk Driving. Both are great in their efforts.

What concerns me is the amount of DUI’s a person is able to rack up, and serve little or no time in jail. What concerns me is how, I could go into a room full of strangers, intentionally fire a gun, killing or attempting to kill as many people as possible and be charged with multiple counts of murder, as well as attempted murder. Yet, a person who gets behind the wheel of a car intentionally drunk, on a street full of strangers, driving aimlessly, killing innocent people-they are charged with manslaughter or second-degree murder. Let’s not forget the word “intent”. If you drink to the point that you are legally drunk, then drive, it should be a given that you intend to take an innocent person’s life. Doesn’t this warrant a harsher punishment?

In the last couple weeks, we have seen our community mourn the loss of Julia Sunderlin, an innocent woman, performing an everyday task in her life-walking her dog. The people that allegedly killed her, perfect strangers, were allegedly drunk and on their way to buy more beer. They are charged with manslaughter in this case. Had they walked up to her on the side of the road, shot and killed her, they would more than likely be charged with first-degree murder.

Intent.

There are more than enough examples of multiple DUI offenders. There are more than enough examples of ridiculous sentences that DUI offenders receive after killing an innocent person, again-perfect strangers.

A car with a drunk person behind the wheel is a deadly weapon. Nobody gets behind the wheel drunk, involuntarily. A punishment should fit the crime.

Think intent.

Giselle's Story

Giselle had spunk. She was a typical, healthy 5-month-old dog, energetic, and everything you would expect from a dog her age. One of my co-workers, a roommate of Giselle's owner, told me she was the "best and sweetest dog-ever".

Giselle's owner, who is also a co-worker of mine, had just adopted Giselle, a yellow lab, from a local animal shelter a couple months ago. Her friend and roommate had just got a bassett hound pup, and she wanted to get a dog herself. She talked about Giselle constantly, and loved this dog completely.

On September 25th, around noon, her roommate was planning to walk her bassett hound, Elliot. Giselle quickly escaped out of the open doorway, and took off.

Giselle's owner, her boyfriend, and roommate looked for Giselle as much as they could, to no avail. They thought she wouldn't be back. Talking to her roommate at work the same day, she suddenly recalled that Giselle had one of those chips that they sometimes put in animals in case of an incident such as this. It sounded promising that Giselle would be found.

Later that night, around 10:30 pm, Giselle's owner and her boyfriend would find her. They found her in a wash about a couple blocks away from their house, in a wash near Stone and Roger Road. (For those who don't know what a "wash" is--it's a dry river bed).

Giselle was unconscious. She was extremely hot. They rushed her to an animal hospital, where Giselle was treated.

This is where it gets really disturbing. When Giselle was found, she smelled of alcohol, one of her eyes were swollen shut, and she had an open sore near her neck. She was urinating blood. It appeared that whoever Giselle came in contact with that day, had beaten her badly. The injuries were not consistent with being hit by a car. The vet told Giselle's owner that she had suffered blunt force trauma and that her brain would not likely recover. She would have brain damage, but would live.

Five days later, Giselle died.

When you really think about it, Giselle's story really tells a lot about our society. The fine line between abusing animals and killing humans is too common to ignore. If you look into the history of serial killers, you will find a large majority had abused animals before moving on to killing people.

When will the person or persons that abused and tortured Giselle move on to humans?

Utah Mine Tragedy Scammer

With just about any tragedy, a community will come together and help, volunteer whatever services they can give to show their love and support. Sometimes, they ask the community to donate what they can- cash, clothing, and other goods or services. The majority of the time they are legitimate services, ones that are going to directly help the victims, loved ones, or a community as a whole.

Then you have the people that crawl out of the woodwork to use a tragedy to their own advantage. People like Hope Ellison.

Who really knows what Hope Ellison was thinking when she allegedly went from door to door collecting cash and checks from unsuspecting victims of a scam involving the Crandall Canyon Mine tragedy in Utah. She's just another person added to the list of people who make it difficult for legitimate charities to receive donations. Because of people like her, people are less trusting of giving their money and their time to the people that really need it.

Obviously, the people that were scammed are victims and would consequently be less trusting in the future. Most of these people probably donated against their better judgement because they didn't want to be seen as cold-hearted. Usually, legitimate charities, trust funds, etc., have bank accounts where you can go into any specifically named bank (Wells Fargo, for example) and donate directly. Then you will know that your donation is going directly to support that particular cause or person. If you still feel uncomfortable giving money, there are other ways to help just about any cause. Giving your time, canned goods, water, are good ways to help as well.

You don't have to be distrustful.........just cautious.

The Babysitter

Frank Gutierrez





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