Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Stories Like This Warm My Heart

This has nothing to do with education or politics, but how can you not love a story like this? I'll quote it here in full:

Beauty-School Beatdown
Wednesday, June 15, 2005


A stick-up man tried to rob a Louisiana beauty school — and ended up getting an extremely nasty makeover.

Cops say Jared Gipson, 24, entered Blalock's Beauty College in Shreveport at noon Tuesday and announced a robbery.

"I thought it was someone just playing, but then I saw that big old gun," manager Dianne Mitchell told The Times of Shreveport. "He said, 'Get down, big mama.'"

The masked robber ordered the people in the room — 18 to 20 students and teachers — to lie on the floor, leading some to think they were going to be killed.

"You'll be the first to go," he allegedly growled to one crying woman.

After collecting everyone's money, the gunman pushed the school's sole male employee, Abram Bishop, toward the back of the room — but then turned and began to run out the door.

That's when Mitchell stuck out her leg. The robber tripped over it, dropped the gun and slammed into a wall.

Bishop immediately jumped on his back, forcing the stick-up man down to the floor.

"Get that sucker!" yelled Mitchell, and the dozen and a half women present grabbed whatever they could get their hands on — curling irons, chairs, a table leg — and piled on.

"They just whooped the hell out of him," said school owner Sharon Blalock.

Crying in pain, bleeding and having soiled his pants (emphasis mine), the gunman tried to crawl away, but the angry women held on to his legs and kept hitting him until police arrived.

Gipson was charged with armed robbery and taken to LSU Hospital in a neck brace, having suffered multiple lacerations. No one else was seriously hurt.

"He got what he deserved," said student Renae Collier.

Gipson's gun turned out to be unloaded.

"He walked into the wrong place at the wrong time," one police officer told KTBS-TV of Shreveport.

"You can tell any prospective students: Blalock's Beauty College has got your back," said Mitchell.

— Thanks to Out There readers Denise B., Kori G., Ellen W. and Allen P.

10 comments:

Rachel Kovaciny said...

Let's hear it for Southern women! Good to know somebody in this country's still got moxie!

Anonymous said...

Here's a lesson learned: Don't mess with them beauty queens.

EdWonk said...

Great story. Since it happened in Louisiana, the perp will do some hard time.

But if it had happened in California, the perp would file a lawsuit against the Beauty School and the students for compensatory and punitive damages... and probably win.

Darren said...

Sad but true, EdWonk. Which is why I posted it--the good guys (or girls) won!

Anonymous said...

I guess Darren's frequent postings answers the question if he's going to get a summer job or not.

Fred said...

And to think I used to make crank calls to beauty parlors when I was a kid.

If I fessed up to it now, who knows what they'd do to me?

Darren said...

Me? Summer job? No, thank you.

I make (and save) enough so that I can enjoy my summers. I'm taking a trip to Utah next week, and I'll be taking my son to Canada later this summer. Don't have anything scheduled for July yet, but summer vacation's still young. I'll also be moving into a new house.

I became a teacher so that I'd have plenty of time to spend with my son. Blogging doesn't take too much of that time. For example, yesterday we went to Old Sacramento and fed crackers to the fish and ducks off the dock by the riverboat Matthew McKinley. Does life get any better than that?

Anonymous said...

Darren...thanks for a pick me up after a rough day with my 20 eight year olds! It brought a smile to my face. (and only two more weeks...oh...wait, then I start the new school year on July 5th...so sad)

Anonymous said...

That's good.

You should spend as much time with your son as possible, before he gets drafted and set to Iraq.

Darren said...

Green, what a sad person you must be to take a funny story like this, and a personal comment about me and my son, and warp it to your petty political views. I'd pity you if i cared about you at all.