Story Archive

Keep Your Hands Inside the Ride at All Times

A woman dropped her daughter off at school in Lakeland, Fla., and then noticed a man in a pickup truck was following her. She wasn’t imagining it: the man rammed her car with his truck, and kept after her. Then it got weird. “He gets out of his truck, walks up to my door and I roll down my window a bit,” says Kristina Fuller, 35. “He threw his dog through the window” — a miniature pinscher. Afraid the dog was trained to bite, she tossed it back. “He gets back in his truck and starts hitting my truck from behind.” She knew there was a cop at the school, so she turned back toward there, and called ahead so they would be ready. “I didn’t even think to call 911, I was so scared.” When she arrived, “I ran inside, grabbed the officer and when we came outside, we found the guy trying to get into my truck.” Howard Van Sweringen, 41, told the officer he thought Fuller pretty, and wanted to “talk with her at any cost.” (RC/Lakeland Ledger) ...The prosecutor’s job now: making sure that cost is very, very high.