"It's kind of like Christmas, " says Bethany Dinger, a 39-year-old day-care owner from Bel Air, Md.

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She crossed Hollis Avenue and cut through a wooded area, emerging in an alley that dead-ended at the body shop of Dave Dinger Ford, an auto dealership.

NEWYORKER: A Loaded Gun

There was another problem: by 2010, the statute of limitations had long since expired on any crimes that Amy might be charged with in relation to the confrontation at Dinger Ford.

NEWYORKER: A Loaded Gun

Bill Delahunt, who was then the district attorney for Norfolk County, which includes Braintree, and who went on to serve seven terms in Congress, told me that if he had been aware of the incident at Dinger Ford he would have charged Amy with assault, which likely would have triggered a psychiatric evaluation.

NEWYORKER: A Loaded Gun