Long strange non-trip for woman, two dogs
February 8, 2006
EUGENE, Ore. --Debra Schwarz and her two dogs are taking the long way home. The really long way. The three are stranded in Eugene, with no available transportation.
Schwarz, 46, has decided to walk home to Wichita Falls, Texas, pulling a large cart she built herself and covered with handwritten tirades against people she believes have done her wrong.
The only problem is, she hasn't gotten very far. Every time she hits the road, the police stop her.
Her 4-foot-wide, 7-foot-long cart is a traffic hazard, police said, and puts Schwarz and her dogs, Lucky and Junior, at risk of being hit by a car.
Police in Eugene and Springfield have escorted her off local highways at least three times in the past month after drivers complained that they couldn't get around her.
The police have been kind, towing her cart to nearby churches and letting her camp out until she can get back to her motor home, parked with permission at a business north of Eugene.
And her lawyer and others have offered to buy her a bus ticket from here to Texas.
But Schwarz refuses to abandon her beloved dogs, and so far no one has agreed to take them on until she can return to Oregon in April for a court appearance.
"She's mostly just desperate," her Eugene attorney, Brian Cox, said. "She's a woman whose life has devolved to this point. It's really a sad story."
Schwarz and her late husband, Norris Schwarz, supported themselves in part by selling wrought-iron Christmas ornaments around the country. Each fall, they drove their motor home and a trailer full of goods to a different city and set up shop on open lots.
On her way through Oregon in 2000, Schwarz got a $350 traffic ticket for failing to obey a traffic signal while driving in Lake County. Annoyed, she tucked human feces into the envelope with the money order she sent to the Lake County Courthouse.
Schwarz was convicted of obstructing government administration, criminal mischief and disorderly conduct. A judge sentenced her to a year of probation, which she violated when she refused to pay a fine. As a result, she served six months in the Lake County Jail last year.
While she went to jail, her 82-year-old husband was stranded in Lake County. Police found him disoriented and sleeping in a pickup truck.
As a result, she was charged with felony criminal mistreatment. She is scheduled for trial in April.
Her husband's adult children eventually took him back to Texas. He died of a heart attack while his wife was in jail.
After her release from jail in October, Schwarz got a lift from a friend to Eugene, but has since been trying to get home to settle her husband's estate.
She refuses to pay a fine that would restore her driver's license, so she can't drive her motor home back to Texas. She says she can't take a bus, train or airplane because of her dogs.
She spent a month building her cart, which she pulls along by a metal bar at her waist. She attached flashlights to the rear, added a reflective triangle and scrawled "caution" in big, black letters on the back.
Police and her attorney have convinced her, for now, that walking home in winter might not be the best idea. Down to her last $10, she is hoping someone will volunteer to baby sit Lucky and Junior until she returns for trial. Or maybe she can hitch a ride with a trucker.
If nothing else comes through, she said she'll make the cart smaller and try walking out of town again.
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My best wishes go out to the dogs. I hope no harm comes to them in her quest to complete this mission 
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