Ready for another story about people doing good around the holidays? Last night a Department of Sanitation worker doing shopping at the Garden State Plaza Mall in Paramus heard a woman screaming as she was being mugged. He was unable to catch up with the crooks, but he was able to pull out his pocket knife and stab it into the crook's car tire, allowing cops to quickly catch him and his accomplice.
"I was shopping at the mall for my son's 7th birthday today. I was getting him a Legos motorcycle," eight-year Department of Sanitation veteran Pete Solla told the Cliffview Pilot. "As I was pulling out of the mall, I noticed something strange going on behind this car. Then I heard the lady scream."
Solla starting tailing the robber in the parking lot, but was soon cut off by another car. So “So I got out and started chasing him," he said. When the mugger got into an SUV and started backing towards him, Solla noted the car's plate number, whipped out his pocket knife and punctured the vehicle's tire as it sped off. He then went back to check on the mugger's victim, a 56-year-old woman who had been violently shoved to the ground. When police arrived he gave them the SUV's information and police in Rochelle Park aprehended the mugger and an accomplice while they changed the SUV's tire.
Solla, a father of two, says he was just doing the right thing. "It's the moral thing to do. That could have been someone's mom, someone's sister who was attacked. I think a lot of people have forgotten those values. But it’s the moral thing to do. If we’re going to make this world a better place, it has to start with each of us."
