She said she hopes her attacker gets the help he needs.
Pat Finnegan normally parks in the parking lot of St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Stillwater when she reports for her volunteer shift at the church’s food shelf. But the church parking lot was full on the morning of April 13 as mourners gathered for the funeral of former Washington County Administrator Jim Schug, so Finnegan,84, found an on-street parking spot near the Washington County Historic Courthouse, about a block away from the church. While she finished her shift around 11:15 a.m., Finnegan returned to her 2008 Buick LaCrosse. Unbeknownst to her, a man was lying in her back seat. “I never would have gotten in the car if I’d seen him,” she said. “I’m not that dumb. I might be old, but I would never do that.” Finnegan got in her car and drove off. She made it about half a block when she spotted a friend out walking, so she pulled over to say hello. The two women chatted for about 10 minutes, Finnegan said. “He was in the back seat the whole time I was talking to her,” she said. When Finnegan started to drive home, the man hit her on the side of the head with a metal object and told her to drive to Minneapolis, she said. “He said, ‘Take me to Minneapolis.’ I said, ‘I don’t know the way to Minneapolis,’ which I don’t.
