No lack of Mrs. Gouveias
By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist
Two weeks ago, a story ran in this space about a mysterious Mrs. Gouveia, a woman who single-handedly apprehended a couple of would-be juvenile delinquents before calling police for backup.
That's all we knew about this crime-fighting dynamo, but you could just imagine by the brief description of the incident over the police scanners that this Mrs. Gouveia was a force for good in the community and someone you didn't want to tangle with if you were up to something crooked.
As it turns out, there are many Mrs. Gouveias — some in name, others in spirit.
The real Mrs. Gouveia of the aforementioned incident didn't want her full name, job title or neighborhood in the paper because of concerns of retaliation, but she did fill in the details of her crime-fighting encounter.
"They jacked the emblem off the car and ran," she said. "So I backed my car up and turned around and I thought, 'I don't know why they're running. My car is faster than they are.' So then they turned off the street, and I got out of the car. And they stopped. They just sat there. And I said, 'You guys aren't going to run, are you?' And they said, 'Noooooo.' "
Mrs. Gouveia called the police and kept an eye on the kids until the officers arrived.
"I lectured to them all the time that it took for the police to get there. The poor kids. I told them, 'You know, there's consequences to everything you do and you know that.' And they go, 'Yes.' And I said, 'I suggest that you don't run, and I suggest that you take what's coming to you and deal with it.' And they said they would."
She made sure they did.
Another Mrs. Gouveia is a police department dispatcher. Her husband is a police officer, and they have seven children.
"My family and I had a good laugh because if anything rings true, I am your real Mrs. Gouveia in the article," she wrote in an e-mail.
"My family says I am always into stopping things from happening in our neighborhood, that I should be wearing the badge. I just guess that's my life. ... I don't know who you used as your image for this article but I just wanted to let you know ... there is a real Mrs. Gouveia that tries to find justice everywhere I go. Oh yeah I make a mean liliko'i jam, too."
This Mrs. Gouveia says she has a copy of the "Mrs. Gouveia" article on her fridge "to remind my kids who I am when they get too big for their britches."
A third Mrs. Gouveia works at Stevenson Middle school. That's not her name, but it is her modus operandi. In fact, she came right up to me, pulled my sleeve, looked me dead in the eye (even though I'm 5-feet-3 and she's about 4-feet-11) and said, "In this school, I am Mrs. Gouveia."
I wasn't sure if I was supposed to salute or genuflect.
In these uncertain times, Hawai'i can take comfort in knowing that several Mrs. Gouveias are on the job.
Reach Lee Cataluna at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.
