Photo: Saul Young / News Sentinel
One grandma from Knoxville, Tennessee put up a serious fight when thieves stole her daughter’s car with her 4-year-old boy inside. She chased after them and crashed into them to force the stolen vehicle to stop.
This is one of those feel-good stories. Melissa Ewing tells KnoxNews that she hadn’t planned on going out that night when the whole thing went down, but she decided at the last minute to buy a few things from a Dollar General store, so she jumped into her Jeep Commander and was on her way.
Her daughter, Britnie Davis, had just driven off in her 2008 white Chrysler Pacifica towards the same destination. She had her 4-year-old son in the back in a carseat, but she made the very common mistake of leaving the engine running and the car unlocked while she went inside.
That’s when a man jumped in and sped off. He stopped a bit farther off to pick a second suspect and they were on their way – just as Melissa was coming towards them. Thinking it was her daughter at the wheel, she tried to flash her to pull over, but when she got no response, she knew something was off.
She turned and went in pursuit of the car. The chase didn’t last long but it was long enough to let Melissa know that her grandson was in serious danger.
“He went through the metro parking lot, and I was so hysterical I didn't think,” she recalls. “We were veering in and out of the lanes, back and forth, back and forth.”
Eventually, when they arrived to a place where the lanes were unoccupied and Melissa had decided to get in front of the car to stop the thieves, they decided to jump out of the moving vehicle. Melissa still hit the Chrysler, forcing it to stop.
She says the damage to the Chrysler is covered by insurance, but her Jeep isn’t insured. Still, she doesn’t regret the way she acted to get the thieves to abandon the stolen vehicle – and the child inside.
“I didn't care what I had to do or how many cars I had to hit,” she says. “Even if I flipped over, I was still going to go. I was not letting no one get away with my grandbaby. The only thing on my mind was ‘get him.’ If I had to total both of the cars, that's what I'd do.”
Her daughter, Britnie Davis, had just driven off in her 2008 white Chrysler Pacifica towards the same destination. She had her 4-year-old son in the back in a carseat, but she made the very common mistake of leaving the engine running and the car unlocked while she went inside.
That’s when a man jumped in and sped off. He stopped a bit farther off to pick a second suspect and they were on their way – just as Melissa was coming towards them. Thinking it was her daughter at the wheel, she tried to flash her to pull over, but when she got no response, she knew something was off.
She turned and went in pursuit of the car. The chase didn’t last long but it was long enough to let Melissa know that her grandson was in serious danger.
“He went through the metro parking lot, and I was so hysterical I didn't think,” she recalls. “We were veering in and out of the lanes, back and forth, back and forth.”
Eventually, when they arrived to a place where the lanes were unoccupied and Melissa had decided to get in front of the car to stop the thieves, they decided to jump out of the moving vehicle. Melissa still hit the Chrysler, forcing it to stop.
She says the damage to the Chrysler is covered by insurance, but her Jeep isn’t insured. Still, she doesn’t regret the way she acted to get the thieves to abandon the stolen vehicle – and the child inside.
“I didn't care what I had to do or how many cars I had to hit,” she says. “Even if I flipped over, I was still going to go. I was not letting no one get away with my grandbaby. The only thing on my mind was ‘get him.’ If I had to total both of the cars, that's what I'd do.”
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