Riiiinng! Riinnnnng!
"Hello. This is Pastor Bursman."
When Paul Bursman, pastor of Thomasville Community Church in Thomasville, AZ, answered the phone on that fateful Friday afternoon, he had no idea that it would set off a chain of events that would change the life of his whole family forever.
On the phone was Frank Pierce, the owner of the local garage. Two business men had been traveling through the area when the water pump on their car went out. He could get the part and have them fixed up by noon the next day. But they needed a place to stay the night. Little Thomasville did not have a motel; just a small bed and breakfast, and it was already full for the night. Could the two men stay at the church?
This was not an unusual request. In fact it happened a lot in this small community. The church had even purchased several cots to be used in the fellowship hall when needed. Pastor Bursman agreed to come and get the men and set them up in the church. Then he told his wife, Mary, the situation and suggested they invite the two men for supper. She readily agreed.
It took Paul about half an hour to drive to the garage, pick up the two men, and get them set up at the church, before they all went over to the house for supper. By then Mary, with the help of their two children, Lydia and Timothy, had the table set and supper ready to be served.
Paul introduced the two men to his family. Ron Thomas and Tom Baker were from California and said they worked as salespeople for a computer company. They laughed about being stuck in Thomasville, since both of them had Thomas in their names. They seemed friendly and everyone enjoyed the table talk during the meal. After the meal was over Tom asked to use the bathroom before they went back to the church. While he was gone Ron helped Mary and the children clear the table.
Suddenly, it happened. When Tom came out of the bathroom, he was no longer the nice, friendly salesman from California. His face was stern, almost angry. He shoved the barrel of a gun in Paul's face.
"Sit down and be quiet. Do exactly what we say and maybe you'll all live through this."
Ron grabbed Lydia from behind and thrust the point of a knife against her neck. As she screamed Tim made a move to help her.
"Easy, boy." Ron said. "She'll be dead before you ever get here. Just back off and sit down on the floor where we can keep an eye on you. Mom, you sit next to him."
Mary, who was by now white as a sheet, quickly sank to the floor. "Please don't hurt her." she cried.
Just that quickly Ron and Tom had the Bursmans at their mercy. Ron stood holding Lydia and the knife. Tim and Mary were on the floor and Paul sat on a kitchen chair nearby. Tom looked around.
"Think you can control things in here while I go see what I can find?" he asked Ron.
"Sure, no problem. They aren't going to try anything fancy as long as I've got the girl here." Ron replied, pressing the knife blade into Lydia's neck a little for emphasis. "Isn't that right, folks?"
Tom left the room. Ron settled back, drawing Lydia with him. "Now, everybody just stay put where you are and your little girl here will remain OK. Try to get up and I'll spray her blood all over the place."
"What's going on?" Paul asked, his voice a little shaky with fear. "Are you robbing us?"
Ron smiled. "You could say that. Actually we need your car. That idiot at the garage could still check on our car and find out we stole it. We need to get out of here tonight yet. But since you invited us into your house and we have the opportunity, we thought, what the hell. We might as well see what other goodies we could find to make it worth our while."
"Then take what you want and leave us alone." Paul begged. "Just don't hurt anyone. Please!"
"Do what we say, when we say it, and no one has to be hurt." Ron replied. "Now, just sit there and shut up."
After about a half hour of waiting, Tom returned with a pillow case which was about a third full of stuff. "Didn't find much," he said. "Only about $200-300.00 worth."
"Well, that's better than nothing." Ron replied. Then he turned to Paul. "OK, give Tom your car keys. It's time we got out of here."
Paul reached into his pocket and tossed his keys to Tom. Anything to get them away from his family, he thought. He could see the fear in his daughter's eyes. And Mary looked like she might faint at any time. Even Tim looked sick with the strain of the last half hour. And Paul realized he didn't feel too good either.
"Wait a minute," Tom said, as he caught Paul's keys. "We can't just leave them here. They'll have the cops on us in no time. We have to tie them up or something. ... Hold on. I've got an idea. Be back in a minute." With that he headed out the back door. A couple of minutes later he was back, carrying the clothesline from the back yard. "We can use this," he said.