MINI COOPER

While looking at headlines last weekend, the words ‘Mini Cooper’ caught my eye. I continued to read the few brief sentences written below the headline. Basically, it said:

In California, a family of four, (parents and their 2 children), were killed when their car was broadsided at an intersection by a driver of a Mini Cooper who ran a red light.

(A Mini Cooper is one of those little ‘box’ type cars that looks like a very small station wagon.) Maybe you saw that headline or heard the sad story as well.

Today, I saw a headline in the San Francisco Chronicle that also got my attention. It said two persons were arrested after they were caught having burglarized the home of a dead family.

There are lots of sad things that people do in this world, but that would have to rank right up there as pretty heartless…stealing belongings from the home of a family that has died.

Well, I had to read the rest of the story to see if, hopefully, the thieves had been flogged in public, or left hanging upside down by their toenails in the town square. As I continued reading, I was saddened to find out they hadn’t even been dragged from their home and beaten senseless.

Basically, the woman was pulled over for a traffic stop and found to have a credit card belonging to someone who wasn’t her. After further police investigation, her boyfriend was also later arrested, driving the stolen vehicle from the deceased family.

Only after reading further, and seeing the words ‘Mini Cooper’ did I make the connection. The deceased family the thieves stole from…was the same family who had been killed three days earlier in the accident involving the Mini Cooper.

The article revealed some more facts from the initial accident. The parents killed were in their 40’s and their two children were ages 8 and 5. The family had, earlier in the day, returned from a family vacation in Hawaii. They were all killed instantly.

The driver of the Mini Cooper was 19 years old. It was reported that he had been seen drinking at a local bar earlier in the evening. At age 17, he was arrested for drunken driving and had his license suspended for 1 year. It was estimated that he was driving the Mini Cooper 70-90mph when it entered the intersection. He survived the initial accident, but died the following day.

There are not enough tears to shed for the parents, grandparents, and other family…who lost their four loved ones in a senseless accident.

There are not enough words to express to ease the pain of the parents of the young man causing the accident. Parents who will wonder if they’d done something different years ago…how many lives would have been changed…including their sons'.

There are not enough ‘I forgive you’s’ that can be given to the two thieves…who would sink so low, that they would read about the death of an entire family in the newspaper, and have the gall to locate their address and steal their personal belongings because the owners weren’t home to protect them.

God be with all of them. He’ll cry with them…He’ll say the words they need to hear…He’ll forgive.

He can. I can’t


Dan