Friday Foursight from The Daily Dap (Chasing Criminals, Excuses, Action)

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Growth Notes

Quotes + More Quotes

A Few Favorite Links

Question For You

Growth Notes

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My morning started with a surprise.

I’ve only encountered such a thing a few times in my life.

But this…. it was DEFINITELY a unique one.

This Friday morning consisted of me chasing criminals.

Truly.

This isn’t a movie script.

It happened 7 hours ago.

Let’s start the story from the moment I opened my eyes this morning….

My morning started as early as the sunrise.

After sorting myself and finishing my morning routine, I made my way out of my apartment.

At 9 AM, I drove to my local Firestone Complete Auto Care for a minor, scheduled car repair. After dropping off my car at the shop, that gave way to an enjoyable 2 mile walk to my company office.

I arrived at the company HQ at 9:28 on the dot.

Austin, Texas is hot and I was carrying a duffle bag the entire 2 mile walk. So, sitting down felt nicer than the usual sit down. I took a swig of cold water and proceeded to setup my desk.

At this point, I was the only person in the office.

Me, myself, and my desk area.

Majority of the time, the office is filled with the vibrations of music. Speakers blasting or meetings happening.

It was divine timing that I wasn’t playing music when sitting at my desk because if I was, I wouldn’t have heard the loud sound reverberate from the streets of South Congress.

This wasn’t your typical sound.

It was different.

Something felt unusual.

So, I jump out of my seat like a NFL linebacker and walked to the front door of the office.

My head takes a swivel to the right and I see a massive box truck T-boned against a Ford F-150.

In addition, another truck situated closely behind my line of view, also sustained damage as a result of its proximity to the accident.

In seeing this, my serotonin immediately spikes.

I run inside to grab my phone and sprint back outside. The door shuts behind me and I’m on my way to investigate the scene.

After asking questions to the bystanders, I know what I need to do: find the 4 people, who were said to be suspects of the incident, that abandoned the F-150.

With all my effort, I was on my way.

As I took off sprinting to find the 4 suspects, I thought of my dad.

There are countless stories of him in his 20s, 30s, and 40s, chasing thieves and making sure justice was rightly served when the moment called for it. My dad isn’t a cop with a uniform and badge. But when a crime happens in front of his eyes, he becomes a concerned citizen, just like Denzel Washington in The Equalizer movie, to take care of the situation.

My inner-dad-chasing-criminals-mindset was in full effect and I ran through sidewalks and streets for 60 minutes until I found 3 of the 4 suspects.

I felt like I was one of the cops — as I was helping the cops catch the suspects through the streets of Austin.

This was the biggest shocker of all: those car thieves weren’t grown men. They were teenagers. One of them was 13 years old.

13.

Years.

Old.

Out of the 3 we found, the 13 year old kid was the last one that I chased down. He had no shoes on (he probably lost them as he was fleeing the scene on foot).

I had found him hiding in front of the middle school he attends — I didn’t know he went to the middle school until after the point of catching him. But it’s reality-altering to me to experience this moment with such a young boy involving himself in such a crime.

He was absolutely frightened when I closed the distanced between us both.

The moment I caught him, he couldn’t stop saying how sorry he was and how he didn’t know the car he was driving in happened to be a stolen vehicle.

Apparently, the detective later told me that these 4 young boys stole the car in Central West Austin the previous night.

Their adrenaline got the best of them, as they ran a red light and got T-boned by the box truck.

There fear overtook them as they fled the scene.

Remorse and sadness swallowed them as their conscious was covered in guilt.

These incidents make me think of 2 things:

1. Criminals are more scared than they are malevolent. Their fear grips them to do terrible things. I don’t like to assume things, but it’s highly likely that these 4 young boys have little to no father-figure in their households. Or if they do, the father isn’t doing a good job. Otherwise, these kids wouldn’t be doing such things.

2. I got robbed in Austin, TX during the beginning months of 2023. When the young thief pointed his gun in my face, along with his partner-in-crime belong-side him, all I saw in their eyes was fear. It was clear that the strongest emotion that drove their actions was that of fear.The entire incident of getting robbed at gun point and getting my car stolen, felt like a full duration of 30 minutes. In actuality, it lasted 30 seconds.The thieves didn’t steal my car, I let them do it. I let them take my car and drive off. In that moment, I knew retaliation wasn’t as important as the cost of my life.

The Austin detective assigned to my case told me that it is rare to crack a car robbery case. Especially in 2023. There have been so many car thefts happening, that it’s hard for the Austin Police to keep up with all of them.Yet, God made a way. The detective and his team ended up getting my car back 10 days later.This afternoon, I also talked to my friend Tom to tell him about what happened today. He is a soon-to-be state trooper, so I knew he would enjoy the story.He told me a staggering stat. He said there are more reported car robberies in the past 2 years in America than there has been in the past 2 decades.Things needs to change. ASAP.I’ll end on this: next time you find yourself needing to make a split-second decision, you can choose to “run towards the fire“ or “run away from the fire”.Get your heart ready, so when the decision presents itself, you can make the right one.

Quotes + More Quotes

“The most unprofitable item ever manufactured is an excuse.” — John Mason

"Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing." — William Shakespeare

"If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way." — Napoleon Hill

A Few Favorite Links

• Start By Saying 'THANK YOU GOD' | A Morning Prayer of Gratitude and Thanks

• The Color of Money — Trailer

Question For You

When a situation calls for your help, do you run to offer aid or sit back and coast?

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