It was one o’clock on a sunny afternoon. Carol Young walked to her car in the crowded parking lot of a fashionable North Dallas shopping center. She had taken the keys from her purse and was unlocking the car door when she felt a knife blade jab against her back.
The nondescript man, about 35, forced her into her car and took the wheel, thrusting the rusty blade to her throat. He drove slowly across the lot. She offered him her car, her purse and her money, but he wanted to rape her.
He bit her arm, ripped her dress and shoved her to the car floor. The knife blade broke her skin in several places. She tried not to panic and told him he would regret what he was about to do for the rest of his life.
Carol Young was lucky. The man stopped the car and wiped his fingerprints from the steering wheel with a handkerchief. Then he got out and walked away, quickly losing himself in the shopping mall crowd.
Young, a 40-year-old North Dallas housewife and the mother of two, raged about what had happened to her. “I finally got tired of complaining and decided to put some effort where my mouth was,” Young says. She went to the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce and spoke to any member who would listen to her. In six months (by February of last year), Carol Young found herself chairman of the chamber’s public safety committee and head of an ad hoc “mall security group.”
Before long, she had officials of NorthPark, Valley View and Prestonwood malls talking together about what might be done about crime and violence at some of the city’s shopping centers.
Today, two years after Young’s abduction, there are hot lines in place or being set up between security units at the participating centers. The informal movement has also spread to high-rise office towers throughout North Dallas.
Officials say the system is working. “We have a lot of sophisticated equipment to fight crime with today,” says Capt. Ray Hawkins of the Dallas Police, “but there will never be a substitute for human awareness and involvement. That’s what Carol has brought about here.”
Related Articles
Local News
In a Friday Shakeup, 97.1 The Freak Changes Formats and Fires Radio Legend Mike Rhyner
Two reports indicate the demise of The Freak and it's free-flow talk format, and one of its most legendary voices confirmed he had been fired Friday.
Local News
Habitat For Humanity’s New CEO Is a Big Reason Why the Bond Included Housing Dollars
Ashley Brundage is leaving her longtime post at United Way to try and build more houses in more places. Let's hear how she's thinking about her new job.