On Tuesday evening, Joan Truly got the surprise of her life as she returned from taking her sister to her home in Sherman Avenue. While cruising along the deep curve near the baseball field, someone threw an object from the bushes and struck Truly’s car while traveling on the dangerous street, leaving a dent in back passenger side door. Afraid and confused, Truly called her husband, Troy Truly, who told her to drive to a well-lit area and call 911.

Complaints of people hitting passersby with objects such as bottles, bricks and other objects as drivers pass through the dangerously curvy area are few if any, according to Warren County Sheriff’s Department records.

Troy Truly, a local minister, said his wife is among those who have fallen victim to this heinous act they say was committed by a juvenile. The bravery of the suspect has Truly wondering how often this occurs.

“Two people have told me about the incidents,” said Troy. “One said that it happened to one of the residents who lives in that community when she had her window knocked out. Another gentleman told me that a police car was hit. I’ve seen broken glass on that street. My thing is, how many people does this happen to?”

The incident could have been worse. Troy said he had taken his 6-year-old granddaughter out of the seat that was hit with the object on the day of the incident.

“If my grandbaby had been in the car when that happened, then the situation would have been different because the focus would have been on whether she was alright. That endangers people’s lives because that curve has a big drop off that could be deadly if the driver loses control of their car.”

Truly said that the people committing the crime put their lives at risk if they hit a vehicle of a person who isn’t afraid to retaliate.

“You have a lot of folks that carry guns with them,” he said. “Somebody could stop their vehicle and start shooting at the person who hit their car. When that happens, you have to deal with the death of a child.”

Another concern was the amount of money that the victims have to pay to repair their cars after it’s been damaged by the careless act.

“These people should consider the amount of money that we would have to spend on fixing our cars,” he said. “I don’t care what kind of car is being driven. If someone worked hard to get it the way they wanted it, then you don’t have the privilege to damage what that person has worked hard for. Nobody has the right to stand out and do something that will affect your finances and transportation.”

Sheriff Martin Pace said that after researching reports, he found that Truly’s report was the only one on record. Pace gave advice on what a victim of this crime should do.

“If someone gets hit by an object while they are driving, they should call 911 so that police can be dispatched to the area in hopes of catching the suspect in the act of committing the crime,” Pace said.

Truly said he believes that fear is what keeps people from reporting the incident.

“I think that people haven’t reported the crime because the people are not going to stop in the road at night and see who it was that hit them. There are no lights out there.”

He hopes to bring awareness to the issue so that people can know what is going on. He also believes that this is a warning to whoever is doing this.

“The key thing is that the community knows about this,” he said. “The parents need to sit down and talk to their children about this. The parents need to be aware that if this is one of their children then that child will be caught and prosecuted. That’s the law. Hopefully, the suspect will see this and just stop doing it. This has to stop before someone gets hurt.”