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Show God Hits Town; Car In Flames According to an Iowa man who arrived ar-rived in Salt Lake two weeks ago, God is riding around town in a ten-year-old car directing the immediate im-mediate punishment of teenagers who set empty beer cans in auto travel lanes as a prank. The Iowan, who identified himself him-self as Ralph Guffy, told police he had a vision a few weeks ago in Iowa in which God appeared to him and directed him to Salt Lake City. Then last Sunday night, just shortly after midnight, he noticed no-ticed a teenager setting beer cans a in the auto travel lane on Fourth South by the City and County Building. HE TOLD officers that God directed di-rected him to take a hand in the matter so he called the police station sta-tion and reported it. Police records show no record of such a call. Guffy then stated that since no action was taken by police, he decided de-cided to take matters into his own hands, because he was "instructed to by God." He blocked the vehicle ve-hicle of one teenager, and when the boy, with the help of another youth, was able to escape the parking park-ing space he was trapped in, Guffy gave chase. The two cars, the story goes, careened around downtown Salt Lake with the Guffy vehicle mak- ing repeated attempts to force the other vehicle to the side of the road. The chase finally ended on Sixth South and Main when the youth's vehicle burst into flames. THE POLICE and fire departments depart-ments responded to calls by citizens, citi-zens, the fire was extinguished, and charges began to fly between the two participants. Confused and amused police officers listened to the tale and threats of suit on the part of both persons, had them exchange names and addresses, and advised both to seek the services of attorneys if they wished to pursue pur-sue the matter. In the course of the investigation, they cautioned Guffy against taking matters into his own hands that way. "You could kill yourself or someone else doing things like this," one officer told Guffy. "GOD TOLD ME to do it. He wouldn't let me get hurt while I'm wing His work," Guffy replied. His confidence remained unshaken throughout the incident. After police concluded their investigation, in-vestigation, both vehicles left the scene under their own power, one saddened teenager with a burned car reflecting on persecution of teenagers and what a wild day it "ad been, and one Don Quixote-Keystone Quixote-Keystone Kop riding the streets of Salt Lake administering divine justice. |