Finding that in my email inbox would freak me out.

But it really happened on Capitol Hill recently.

At 4:15 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, Lee Pitts, the spokesman for Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), saw an unusual e-mail message pop up on the corner of his computer screen: “Please call 911 for me,” the subject line said.

Less than an hour earlier, Herman Wang had been transcribing interviews in the Washington bureau of the Chattanooga Times Free Press — which happens to be on the second floor of his house, since Wang is the Washington bureau of the Chattanooga Times Free Press. Wearing headphones and re-listening to Tennessee pols speculate on whom they would prefer as vice presidential candidates, Wang didn’t hear his basement door kicked in. He did hear, however, a man’s footsteps on the stairs.

Wang met the intruder in the hallway. “I’m just looking for — ” said the man, who didn’t finish the sentence but instead rushed at Wang and beat him in the face as the reporter tried to defend himself.

* * *

Wang crawled to the master bedroom, hid behind the bed and tried to think of who might have a BlackBerry on hand. The obvious answer: a Hill staffer like Pitts.

“I was just robbed at home by two burglars,” reads the e-mail Wang got off. “Laptop, phones and wallet all taken. They missed my wife's laptop. I dont' [sic] know if they're still around the house. Please call 911 and ask them to send police.”

“Calling now,” wrote Pitts at 4:16 p.m., a minute after Wang’s e-mail came in.

“Thanks, I am in upstairs bedroom,” Wang wrote at 4:18.

If you read one story today that isn't "hard news", this is the one you should look at. it is a great story of kindness and decency -- and reminds us that some things transcend rivalries and adversarial relationships.

A hearty "attaboy" to Lee Pitts -- and best wishes to Herman Wang.

Posted by: Greg at 10:25 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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