Linda Bratton and Greg Gunnels are planning on getting married a week from today. They were going to get their marriage license this afternoon. But the men who carjacked them took more than just their truck and now their plans are jeopardy.
They are still wearing the clothes they put on yesterday. Linda has borrowed shoes on her feet. They are too afraid to go home, after a visit to the edge of an airport runway ended with a gun in their faces and a robbery.
"I was really frightened. At the end, I thought I was gone," Bratton said.
The couple was on Lee Road near Will Clayton Parkway around 1:30 this morning watching planes land at Bush Intercontinental Airport.
Three men approached in a truck asking directions.
"He was trying to tell him where Green Road was at. That's when he stuck his gun out and told him he wanted his money," Bratton told us.
"All I'm thinking is oh my God, they're going to hurt my girlfriend. And I wanted to prevent that," Gunnels said.
The carjackers forced them out of their pickup and onto the ground.
"They took my truck. I had my wallet; all my ID," said Gunnels.
Not just that; a week from getting married, their rings were also in the truck along with Linda's shoes, the keys to their apartment and what little cash they've saved. He drives a school bus for Aldine ISD, where she also has a job.
"I think it's pathetic," said Shelly Vick, sister of Gunnels.
She is the one he called from a nearby gas station in a panic.
"It's obvious they're both disabled. They're not in a super fancy vehicle. And they come up and take them for everything that they have," Vick said.
The family just wants back the truck and the rings, hoping that their planned nuptials will take off on schedule next week. Gunnels hopes the crooks learn their lesson soon.
"They're sick. They're mentally ill. And I feel for them cause they'll get caught one day," he said.
Houston police tell us they are investigating the carjacking. They're looking for a 1997-98 Chevy 1500 pickup. It's white with a blue hood and a Texas license plate: BL1 9374.
So far, police say they have no suspects.
