http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=WONDERBOY-11-29-06
I don't know how to get that link to work as a link, so I'll just paste
in the story from Scripps-Howard News Service, but the site itself has
a photo of the kid.
4-year-old in Power Ranger garb foils robbery
By MATT DEES
Raleigh News & Observer
29-NOV-06
DURHAM, N.C. -- A robber was holding a gun to 5-year-old Mary Long's
head when a 3-foot-tall Mighty Morphin Power Ranger leapt into the
room.
"Get away from my family," 4-year-old Stevie Long shouted, punctuating
his screams with swipes of his plastic sword and hearty "yah, yahs."
The robber and his accomplice, who was waiting outside the apartment
Friday night, fled with credit cards, jewelry, cash and other items
that Stevie's mother, Jennifer Long, dumped from her purse.
"I scared the bad guys away," Stevie said.
Two men had approached Jennifer Long's boyfriend and his son as they
stood outside the apartments she helps manage, according to a police
re****t. The strangers asked for pot, and then a cigarette, and as the
son went to get one, both men pulled guns, police said.
One stayed with the boyfriend as the other forced the son back into the
apartment, police said. Inside were Jennifer Long, a cousin, Stevie,
Mary and two other children, police said.
They were forced on the floor. The robber pointed the gun at Mary and a
1-year-old girl named Sierra, said Stevie's uncle, Bernie Evans, 33,
who lives above the Longs.
Enter Stevie.
"During the robbery, a ... boy snuck into his bedroom, dressed himself
in a Power Ranger costume and armed himself with a plastic sword,"
police said. "The child then exited his room and approached the armed
suspect, in an attempt to protect his family."
Relatives said the robber abandoned plans to take Stevie's mother to an
ATM to withdraw cash when he saw Stevie.
"It tripped him out, and that's when they moved on," said Evans, who
did not witness the incident. Jennifer Long declined to comment, saying
her employers at the apartment complex would not allow it.
Stevie likes to think he cuts an intimidating figure in his
red-and-black mask and foam suit that replicates the rippling muscles
of the kiddie adventure show heroes. But Evans said the robber was more
startled that Stevie was able to retreat to his bedroom and morph.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
|
