A Scary Halloween -- Indeed

 

Perhaps as the fist rammed into her jaw, Veronica reconsidered her Halloween costume.

 

"Don't ask me what she was supposed to be," says mother Pat, who had said it was OK for Veronica, her youngest child, to go trick or treating dressed as a cheerleader.  But mom didn't know that  Veronica changed her plans while spending the night with friends. 

 

Veronica herself doesn't remember.  She doesn't remember who hit her or anything else up to the time those friends took her home last Halloween.

 

But whether or not it was a good idea for a 5-foot 88-pound 13-year-old to dress as a ghoulish vagrant with a blood dripping fake knife, nobody worried about being mugged over a costume and candy.

 

They would now.  That's why Veronica and her mother want to share their last Halloween. You might think twice when the trick or treaters head out the door in the next few days. 

 

"Good can come from anything," Pat says.  "If we can warn another parent. . . ."

 

So here goes.  Up until last year, Veronica always had been chaperoned on Halloween.  But the four girls involved on her 13th Halloween didn't think it was necessary for an older brother to go along.  Later, when the four older boys in camouflage began to follow them, the girls began to feel differently, and one of them headed back.

 

"Every time we'd, like, cross a street, they'd cross the street and go to the same house," Veronica says.

 

The rest of the girls also decided to go home.  They cut through a parking lot near Arcadia and Bigelow streets when the boys caught up with them.  (The rest of this is according to Veronica's friends, because she doesn't remember.)  The boys demanded Veronica's knife.  She said it was fake and demonstrated by placing the plastic tip against her arm.  One boy grabbed her bag of Halloween candy.  Veronica reached for it, and a second boy socked her in the face.

 

All the boys ran off; the girls headed to the house where they were spending the night.  Veronica was so shaken that they took her home.  As they drove, they spotted the boys.  Veronica was dropped at home and her family called police while her friend's father took off to chase them.

 

Police did catch one of the four - not the one who punched Veronica - and brought him to her house.  That shook Veronica even more, but he did back up the girls story.

 

However, nothing ever happened to any of the boys.  Veronica didn't remember, and her friend changed her mind about identifying them.

 

The fallout for Veronica was more severe.  She could barely talk for several days.

 

'Now I realize I probably should have taken her to the emergency room," her mother says.  "At the time, I think I was more concerned over her emotional state.  She was terrorized.  She shook, she  just shook for hours."