I’ve seen plenty of photos of ’63 Corvettes, and I’ve seen plenty at car shows and occasionally on the road. But seeing the ’63 Sting Ray in the January 2010 issue of Motor Trend (“Archive” feature on last page) for some reason took me back to the day in spring 1975 (I was 11) when my mom took a bullet during a police chase.
The Jersey City (NJ) police had chased a stolen car into Bayonne. The woman driving was doing everything possible to evade capture, including driving on the sidewalk. Bayonne cops joined the chase, which became a wild and dangerous procession down Broadway, busy with cars and pedestrians. The cops tried blocking the crazed driver’s path with Cushman parking patrol scooters, which she plowed through, and then a garbage truck, but she got past it. One of more officers started shooting at the car, trying to hit its tires (as the official story would later say).
My mother was standing outside the Rite Aid, when, startled by all the commotion, she felt a sudden stinging in her thigh. A bullet had pierced her purse but stopped at the skin, causing a nasty bruise. I remember being called to the principle’s office to be told my mom had been shot but was OK, and then getting to leave school early with my sisters.
Walking to school the next day, I saw a few damaged store windows, some piles of auto glass at the curb – and the blown-out right-side window of the white 63 Corvette I walked past every morning. I remember wondering if they still made replacement windows for the car.
The city reimbursed my mother for a new purse, but she was not able to find one like she had been carrying that day. My oldest sister had bought it for her on a trip to Spain as an exchange student. Its heavy leather and many internal pockets are what helped stop the bullet.
