Story Archive

Neighborhood Watch

The police were out in force in Lancaster County, Pa., looking for a 5-year-old girl and her kidnaper. A local resident who didn’t know the girl decided to play the hero, organizing a small search party of his own. But when he spotted a suspicious car, it was just him and one friend, and the friend had fallen behind. The driver turned around when he saw a group of officers at the top of a hill and began trying side streets in the cul-de-sac-heavy neighborhood. Then the driver noticed the two civilians chasing him. He stopped and pushed the missing girl, Jocelyn Rojas, from the car. She ran to the hero, Temar Boggs, a black teenager who’d conducted the chase on a borrowed bicycle. The kidnaper, an older white man, drove away. (AC/Lancaster Intelligencer Journal, WHTM Harrisburg) ...Sometimes, playing the hero is the same as actually being one.