He could tell the woman had been crying. Allen Johnson watched the Christmastime transaction at his Greeneville, Tenn., pawn shop. He saw the dejected woman with the vanful of children spread her jewelry on the counter. And he heard his business partner tell her he could offer her $25 for the lot. "She busted out crying even more," the NHRA Pro Stock driver said. "I got to have it. I'll take it," she said, trying to compose herself.

He broke his nose. Little two-year-old William Whitney Bazemore crashed his tricycle into a wall. The ramp at the building where he and his family lived in New York City was all too inviting, and he barreled down it and couldn't stop properly.