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Holden_Caulfield

Holden_Caulfield

Ann Arbor, MI
April 2004

MAR 02, 2008 09:08 PM

CRAWFORD, Texas (CNN) -- A Danish journalist came this close to getting shot Saturday by an elderly woman packing a pistol near President Bush's ranch here in what was easily the strangest incident I've ever witnessed covering the White House.

It all started so innocently as I sat with a group of Danish journalists just down the street from Bush's ranch during a visit by Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen. The two leaders were having lunch on the ranch, so I was waiting at a nearby historic one-room schoolhouse with White House staff to interview Rasmussen after the meal. Then the prime minister was going to do a brief press conference with the Danish press corps.

Terkel Svensson, a writer for the Danish News Agency, could not get wireless Internet access at the schoolhouse to file a story. But Svensson could get his cell phone working so he called his editor in
Copenhagen and started wandering across a quiet country road as he chatted away.

"I was just so occupied dictating my story that I didn't really see where I went," Svensson told me later. "I was just walking and talking."

What Svensson didn't realize was that he had stopped walking a couple hundred feet away, on the front lawn of an elderly woman. An elderly woman who looked through her window and didn't like that a strange man was standing outside her house. An elderly woman who had, um, a gun.

Next thing you know the woman is outside, no more than a few dozen feet from the journalist, demanding that he leave. "Suddenly she comes out and she says, 'Get off my property. You're trespassing,'" recalled Svensson.

Svensson was too preoccupied to notice the pistol, and was not aware that Texas law gives homeowners leeway on using a weapon when someone is trespassing on your property. All of us journalists across the street were too far away to see the pistol at first, until a Danish photographer with a telephoto lens announced to a bunch of us that there was indeed a weapon in the elderly woman's right hand.

As word spread that the lady had a gun - which she did not use - I can tell you it's a severe understatement to say White House and Secret Service officials were a bit concerned about the fact that they had just dodged an international incident. Ditto for Svensson, who was alarmed when he safely crossed the street and was shown dramatic still photos of the lady holding the gun.

"I will show the photos to my wife and children," Svensson told me. "They thought I was on a safe trip."

CNN was not able to reach the woman for comment.


http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/03/02/gun-incident-near-president-bushs-ranch/

smile Have you posted in the SG Liberal Politics group lately? smile

thefreak

thefreak

NEWSWIRE

Gardner, MA

MAR 02, 2008 09:15 PM

...words fail me.

-TM

DevilsReject

DevilsReject

Cleveland, OH
February 2007

MAR 02, 2008 09:18 PM

thank god she was there, to protect us from, well, a danish guy on his cell phone.....

MrStitches

MrStitches

Brooklyn, NY
November 2003

MAR 02, 2008 09:21 PM

Fucking Danes...

abbazappa

abbazappa

Sacramento, CA
June 2006

MAR 02, 2008 09:29 PM

don't mess with Texas i think is how the saying goes.

formerviking

formerviking

Denver, PA
May 2006

MAR 03, 2008 01:03 AM

Get Off My Lawn !!!

PaulNikon

PaulNikon

Palm Bay, FL
February 2003

MAR 03, 2008 01:06 AM

Looks like he was pretty close to her house.

FearTheReaper

FearTheReaper

NEWSWIRE

I'm lost

MAR 03, 2008 01:17 AM

PaulNikon said:
Looks like he was pretty close to her house.



Meaning what?

scylis

scylis

USA
November 2004

MAR 03, 2008 01:30 AM

FearTheReaper said:

PaulNikon said:
Looks like he was pretty close to her house.



Meaning what?



that his physical location was within close proximity to the habitual residential abode of the geriatric gun owner in question.

DevilsReject

DevilsReject

Cleveland, OH
February 2007

MAR 03, 2008 01:31 AM

PaulNikon

PaulNikon

Palm Bay, FL
February 2003

MAR 03, 2008 01:33 AM

FearTheReaper said:

PaulNikon said:
Looks like he was pretty close to her house.



Meaning what?



The story made it sound like he had one foot in her yard. If you are really close to someones house and you weren't invited, well. Get off my lawn.

RedBstrd

RedBstrd

Riverside, CA
April 2004

MAR 03, 2008 05:13 AM

I would normally suggest that she was overreacting, but the Danish are a bit shady.

Coyotemike

Coyotemike

USA
May 2006

MAR 03, 2008 06:16 AM

She was obviously scared that this was the start of a Viking invasion.

r00kers

r00kers

Nederland, CO
February 2003

MAR 03, 2008 06:43 AM

Trying to prevent a Danish immigration problem. Something that the English suffered from many years ago.

_kungfoo_

_kungfoo_

Los Angeles, CA
April 2005

MAR 03, 2008 08:53 AM

Link no worky.

Holden_Caulfield

Holden_Caulfield

Ann Arbor, MI
April 2004

MAR 03, 2008 10:08 AM

KUNGFOO said:
Link no worky.



You're right. CNN pulled it for some reason.

Here's another link: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3206848 .

DhD_No_Pants

DhD_No_Pants

Katy, TX
May 2006

MAR 03, 2008 10:12 AM

Honestly, who is to say what kind of crazies she has had to deal with living that close to Bush's ranch? I mean, I wouldn't come out with a gun or anything, but I'm not an old lady, either.

Holden_Caulfield

Holden_Caulfield

Ann Arbor, MI
April 2004
pirate4life

pirate4life

Charlotte, NC
July 2007

MAR 03, 2008 05:06 PM

"Svensson was too preoccupied to notice the pistol, and was not aware that Texas law gives homeowners leeway on using a weapon when someone is trespassing on your property."

Coyotemike

Coyotemike

USA
May 2006

MAR 03, 2008 05:20 PM

DhD_No_Pants said:
Honestly, who is to say what kind of crazies she has had to deal with living that close to Bush's ranch? I mean, I wouldn't come out with a gun or anything, but I'm not an old lady, either.



This is true. With neighbors like that, I'd keep a gun around too tongue

sillyokio

sillyokio

Fort Worth, TX
January 2005

MAR 03, 2008 05:53 PM

Ok, so what's wrong with someone not wanting someone else on their lawn?

abbazappa

abbazappa

Sacramento, CA
June 2006

MAR 03, 2008 05:58 PM

sillyokio said:
Ok, so what's wrong with someone not wanting someone else on their lawn?



damn teenagers making out on my front lawn *shake fist er pistol*

Coyotemike

Coyotemike

USA
May 2006

MAR 03, 2008 05:58 PM

sillyokio said:
Ok, so what's wrong with someone not wanting someone else on their lawn?



Nothing, but pulling a gun because someone wandered onto the lawn seems excessive.

sillyokio

sillyokio

Fort Worth, TX
January 2005

MAR 03, 2008 06:04 PM

coyotemike said:

sillyokio said:
Ok, so what's wrong with someone not wanting someone else on their lawn?



Nothing, but pulling a gun because someone wandered onto the lawn seems excessive.



Excessive? Hardly.
Suppose it depends on your living situations and environment, but I for one would certainly pull a gun out.
With her living that close to Bush's ranch, is it even that far from perspective?

wheezy_e

wheezy_e

Boulder City, NV
April 2004

MAR 03, 2008 06:06 PM

she should have shot him in his toodles.

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