Ok, here goes……I’m getting back on my soap box!!  And I’m really pretty heated about this topic!!!

Here’s the story right…………

Family of hit and run victim pleads for answers

MINNEAPOLIS — True Thai has been voted one of the best places to eat in Minneapolis over and over again. But things will be different now. The heart of their kitchen is gone.

Anousone Phanthavong, 38, was one of the restaurants best chefs. He was supposed to stop by the restaurant to pick up some gas money Tuesday night but he never made it, according to Chuck Whitney, owner of True Thai and a close friend.

Phanthavong was just a block away filing up his car on the I-94 ramp near Riverside Avenue when a Mercedes SUV hit him and then took off. The money his boss left him lay in the restaurant untouched.

“When I came this morning it was still there. So very sad,” Whitney said.

Panthavong’s family is now left with many questions and no answers. They are pleading for anyone with information to help.

“He’s still so young and the family is so upset,” Keo Phanthavong, Anousone’s mother said through an interpreter.

Phanthavong was just getting his life together. As refugee from Laos, and one of five children, he didn’t have a lot growing up but dreamed big.

“He always think that okay, one of these days he’s going to make it when he comes to United States. He’s going to own his own restaurant in future,” Latsany Phanthavong, his sister oldest sister said.

That dream came closer to reality when Phanthavong cooked for U2 during their concert last month. That’s stress most of us couldn’t handle but Phanthavong was different.

“He was so dependable. He was the kind of guy on his day of he would come in by check and make sure things were running good in the kitchen,” Whitney said.

The kitchen is where he was supposed to be Wednesday morning doing what he loved best. But instead his funeral was being planned. 
State Patrol spokesman Lieutenant Eric Roeske tweeted that investigators are looking for a 2007-2011 Mercedes, possibly model GKL 300, ML 320, ML 350, ML 500, or ML 63.

 From KARE 11 

Ok, so here I go……. *STEPPING UP ON MY SOAP BOX*

WTF is wrong with people????  

That’s twice this week I’ve had to say that?  How in the name of all that is Holy do you think it is ok to not only drive into a person, likely kill that person, drive away, leave the scene, and the NEXT day call your lawyer before you report it was your car that KILLED A MAN!!!!!!

Not only is that bad enough, but after you take the life of another human being, destroy his family, take away their main bread winner, leave a wife without her soul mate, take a father from his children, not only is all of that bad enough, BUT now you plead the 5^th so as to not incriminate yourself or any of your family members??

In my mind you are the lowest of low, you are a despicable human being, you do NOT deserve the air you are thieving from these every day, regular, hardworking people!!!
Because you’re rich, you’re famous, that somehow makes you better than them?  First generation immigrants with one main source of income, and c’mon as a chef at a Thai restaurant I cannot imagine that income was very big, but they made it, they plugged along and worked HARD for their American Dream!!!!  And you, you despicable, entitled, individual…….YOU took that from them, you took their opportunity!!!  See the article below…….click on link below to read it in it’s entirety.

Car from fatal hit & run registered to former Vikings player Joe Senser

GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. – The Mercedes SUV believed to have been involved in a recent fatal hit and run in Minneapolis is registered to Joe Senser, his attorney, Eric Nelson confirmed to KARE 11 Thursday evening. The SUV was taken into police custody last Wednesday when a search warrant for Senser’s property was executed by the Minnesota State Patrol.

“The Senser family is obviously very keenly aware of the tragedy that is involved here and they are attempting to deal with that as a family,” Nelson said.

From KARE 11 

Well that’s nice of you…….nice that you are keenly aware of the tradgedy thats involved……and you attempt to deal with it as a family?? You do that……..while the family YOU destroyed tries to piece their lives back together!!

An excerpt from the latest in the string of articles is here:

Joe Senser to face lawsuit by hit and run victim’s family

MINNEAPOLIS — Attorneys for the family of a fatal hit and run victim are preparing a civil lawsuit against former Viking Joe Senser.

Jim Schwebel tells KARE 11 the lawsuit is being prepared and will be filed in Hennepin County District Court as soon as a trustee is appointed by the court to represent Anousone Phanthavong’s next of kin. He expects that the suit will be filed by Tuesday.

Schwebel is preparing suppoenas for approximately 10 people he believes may have direct knowledge of who is responsible for Phanthavong’s death.  Those suppoenas will be issued  directly after the lawsuit is filed.

The lawsuit will also seek unspecified monetary damages as Phanthavong was a primary wage earner for an extended family of first-generation immigrants who depended on his salary as a chef. 

From KARE 11 

Personally I hope they take them to the cleaners!!!!!!!!  Please do not get me wrong…..I cannot stand people who are just out for a quick buck…….but in this situation I truly believe that this family would MUCH rather have their husband and father around then the $$$ they may get from the Senser family, but seems as that opportunity has been taken from them and cannot be undone I say take the bastards for all they have!!! 

Now as for my last gripe before I step down from this box………JOE SENSER’S SPORTS BAR………..I have not been a huge supporter of this restaurant chain, but I’ve  dined there in the past………BUT I never will again!!!  And if this story upsets or angers you at all, I ask that you too stay away from this establishment!!  Tell Joe Senser and his investors that you will not put up with this sort of behavior from someone who believes they are higher then the law because they have money and fame on their side!!!

Ok………that’s all!!  I am officially *stepping off my soap box*