Joy Sacopulos, member of the Terre Haute Crow Patrol, shot a firework into the air towards an area where she spotted crows gathering in the trees.
Photo Credit: Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times

Her Cadillac glides slowly through the rain-glossed streets of this traumatized city, her gat within reach. The ominous evening sky has yet to turn black, but it will. Oh, it will. Her name is Joy Sacopulos. She is 72, bespectacled, and so small in her boat of a de Ville that she seems at eye level with the wheel. But don’t let her play you for a sap. By day she might be the civic do-gooder, planting dogwoods in the park; by night she is the dame packing pyrotechnic heat, intent on keeping the city’s streets — and cars, and benches — clean.