Published: July 31, 2010
Op-Ed Contributor
Cheerleader Tackles 6-Foot Shoplifter
By Robert Paul Reyes
"A 16-year-old, 110-pound varsity cheerleader in Oklahoma says her tackle and takedown of a 6-foot-tall suspected thief at a local mall was 'an instinct thing.'
Kealey Oliver, a 5-foot-2 cheerleader for Moore High School in Oklahoma City, said she was at the city's Penn Square Mall near the Macy's on the second floor Sunday when she saw a man running toward her with a bag in his hand and security officers running after him shouting 'thief,' The Oklahoman reported Friday." UPI
If I'm at a shopping mall and a fleeing shoplifter is headed in my direction, I would give him a wide berth. I wouldn't consider tackling him, out of fear of getting sued or beat up.
Kealy had no such qualms, she got in the thief's way, and tackled him to the ground. Kealy demolished my stereotype of the cheerleader as a ditzy babe who eschews dusting out of fear she may scrape a fingernail.
While I commend Kealey, I caution other cheerleaders not to follow her foolhardy action. Kealy is fortunate she didn't end up dead or in a hospital.
Prison will be hell for the shoplifter who was foiled by a cheerleader, he will be somebody's wife before he spends a night behind bars.
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Robert Paul Reyes is a NewsBlaze writer on Politics, Pop Culture and Pointless Pontificating. Contact him by writing to NewsBlaze.
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