Woman Jumps on Car to Stop Alleged Thieves
MONIQUE LAWLESS, TRIED TO STOP ALLEGED THIEVES: I told the cashier, do something, they're leaving. She couldn't do anything, so I just told her, watch my purse.</s>LEMON: Watch my purse. You know what that means when someone says hold your purse? That means business. Police don't like citizens getting directly involved if they see criminal crime, because it's really dangerous, to be honest. But Monique Lawless was so angry when she saw three men you men allegedly shoplift three cases of beer from a Houston Wal-Mart where she was shopping, she leaped right into action. Look at the video right there. There she is right there. Jumped right up on the hood of that car. She chased them outside and jumped on the car before they sped away. They didn't get far before the police caught them. And guess what, Monique Lawless joins me now live from Houston. Monique, I see you've got some black eyes from that incident. I'm going to ask you about that. What were you thinking?</s>LAWLESS: I was just reacting really. I was mad. I saw these kids walk in there and walking out with beer. I told the cashier, do something, do something. People were standing around. We were all waiting in line to check out, so they heard me telling her and saw me pointing at them and no one was doing anything. So when it became obvious that Wal-Mart couldn't do anything, I just told her, watch my purse and my basket and I took off after them.</s>LEMON: You weren't afraid that they could have -- you were going to get hurt by the car. They could have beat you or they could have a weapon of some type. You didn't think about that?</s>LAWLESS: No. When I first saw them, they looked fairly young. I was thinking 19, 18 years old, my kids' age. And when confronted by an adult, my kids are going to stop, and yes, sir, yes, ma'am, no sir, no ma'am. Where these kids didn't have any fear whatsoever or any kind of respect for authority for adults or anybody. They didn't care.</s>LEMON: Yes. We were just showing the video of them actually getting caught. Listen, did they drag you a little bit -- it looks like in that video you got dragged just for a minute?</s>LAWLESS: Yes. When I opened the driver's side car door, he took off then and I had a hold of the door and it pulled me forward and I lunged forward and I did a face plant into the asphalt.</s>LEMON: That's where the black eyes came from?</s>LAWLESS: Yes.</s>LEMON: OK.</s>LAWLESS: That's where the black eyes, the bruised nose, everything.</s>LEMON: You have some news that you haven't told anyone else. That is?</s>LAWLESS: I received a Facebook message from family members of the Sylvester boys, and, you know, they apologized to me from the family. They said, you know, we're really, really sorry that you had to go through this event but we're thankful for what you did. We're thankful for your actions, and that they deserve whatever punishment they get. They deserve to be in jail right now and pay for what they did. They were wrong. And I told the family member, thank you, thank you, thank you, because I felt bad. I feel for the family. Everybody's affected by this. Your community is affected, their family, right down the line. And I want to say thank you to that family for reaching out to me and letting me know that they felt like I did the right thing.</s>LEMON: Why does it mean so much to you to hear from them?</s>LAWLESS: Because I'm not here to destroy these kids, you know. But I want them to realize that this is -- we're human beings. This is a society that we all want to live in safe and peacefully. We don't want to worry about our kids every time they run down to the park or to the store or to the movies. We don't want to fear for our lives any time, much less in broad daylight on a Sunday, Father's Day at Wal-Mart, in a small town.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>LAWLESS: I want them to know, you can't do this. It's not right. Get a job.</s>LEMON: Listen, I've got to run here. Just answer yes or no. would you do it again?</s>LAWLESS: Yes, absolutely.</s>LEMON: Thank you, Monique Lawless. We appreciate people like you.</s>LAWLESS: Thank you.</s>LEMON: Good luck. We're going to check back with you, OK? Give us an update.</s>LAWLESS: Thank you. God bless you.</s>LEMON: You as well.</s>LAWLESS: OK.</s>LEMON: A woman gets arrested for recording a police incident that took place in her front yard, right in front of her home. This is going to infuriate you, I'm telling you. Police say she was interfering in their business. Did they go too far? Our legal expert, Sunny Hostin, is going to weigh in.</s>EMILY GOOD, ARRESTED FOR VIDEOTAPING POLICE: -- and they're arresting me!