Story Archive

Lady Linebacker

Becky Powell, riding in a car with her husband in Richland, Wash., noticed a police officer in foot pursuit of a man, who was getting away. “I told my husband [the cop] is never going to catch him,” she said, so she told her husband to speed up and get in front of the fleeing man. Then she jumped out of the car without even waiting for her husband to stop, “got into a football stance, and said, ‘You’re going to stay here’,” Powell recounted. “He stiff-armed me and I just wrapped him up and threw him on the ground.” She held Joseph Lewis Fry, 20, until the officer arrived to make the arrest; Fry ran because he knew there was a warrant for his arrest. Once he was handcuffed, Powell “whispered in his ear, ‘How does it feel to be taken down by a mother of five and a grandmother of three?’” Powell is only 40. In response, Fry looked grumpy, and a police officer gave her a high-five. (RC/Kennewick Tri-City Herald) ...Never underestimate a woman who is able to keep up with toddlers.