Struggling to unwrap his leg from the belt, his heart raced as he knew he had seconds before the police would be on
him. He pulled with all his strength and his foot came free pulling off one of his black Oxford dress shoes.
He ran towards a home and headed for the side of it. There was a 6 foot gated wooden fence that he knew he had
to get over. He quickly decided to just run and jump to get over that fence. As he jumped his hands grabbed the
top of the gate, but the gate was not locked and swung open with the force of De Lucas weight hitting it. De Luca
lost his balance and fell to the floor. He heard tires screeching to a stop close behind him. He looked back and saw
that the police had reached his car. De Luca picked himself up and started running again, stepping in water in a
child’s inflatable pool with his unshod foot. He headed for the fence at the back of the yard and was ready to jump
over it. He could hear the police in the back ground.
“He’s not in the vehicle” yelled the officer.
“Keep looking” yelled another officer.
De Luca hopped on the fence putting one leg over but decided to turn and look back as he straddled the fence. He
could see 5 officers’ flashlights waving about. He thought he might actually get away. Suddenly a light shone in his
eye.
“STOP! POLICE!” Yelled the officer.
All the flashlights he saw then shone on him as if he was the star in some Broadway play. De Luca put a hand up
over his eyes to stop the lights blinding him. He then threw his other leg over the fence and jumped down into the
dark and muddy alley. His foot stepped into a small cold mud puddle. Looking down for a quick second as the cold
mud engulfed his foot, he thought quickly about which way he should go. There was an empty silver aluminum
garbage can that he saw next to him, and wondered if he should try to hide there. “Probably that’s the first place
they will look” he thought. He ran to another 6 foot high wooden fence and hopped over it.