posted
has anyone ever been mugged and beat at gun point? i had the luxury of experiencing this fantastic thrilling adventure last saturday.
im curious if this has happend to anyone... if so how did you deal with it?
also... if you have had the luxury of having cold steel pressed against the back of your head; what did you think about. i expected to see my life flash before my eyes but all i could think was "how in the hell did i end up with a gun pointed at mah' head".
near death experiences anyone?
Posts: 40 | Registered: May 2003
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I have luckily never had this happen to me, so I cannot commiserate with you other than the fact that I am glad you are alright. (At least physically)...
However, I did just had six teeth out, which is hardly comparable, but it is up there on life-experiences level.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Slash is the only person I'm aware of who has experienced something like this, foo. I believe he was tied up and held at gunpoint, along with someone else in his office. If he doesn't see this thread, I'd recommend sending him an email message; I expect that talking to someone else who's been through this could really help.
Sorry you had to experience this.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
I worked at the Food Lion near my house when I was in high school, bagging groceries at the time. I knew everybody there, pretty much, from school - the manager was even a friend of my brother's. This guy with a fanny pack is talking really quiet to the casier I'm bagging for. He told her to give him all the money (she did, after asking me for a bag). I saw someone go for help from behind him in line. He tells the cashier not to call for help or he'll 'shoot her and her friend too', which seemed to be referring to me. He went to run out of the store, but got leveled by the manager WWF style at the door. My only brush with a criminal!
Posts: 5422 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
Possum: violated, yes i do feel violated... not in a good way :-p besides feeling violated, ive been noticing myself walking around on the streets with my hands all fisted up, and thinking "is this guy going to jack me"... oh well... with time, eh? =)
im tring to be all smiles and happy that i don't have any other holes in me other than the ones i was born with... but im just weired out.
posted
When i was 13 or 14 me and a friend of mine were surrounded by a local "gang" and had a couple knives pulled on us.
Granted this wasn't a gun, but to a kid it was probably just as scary.
We had taken a short cut through the woods to get to the local plaza, apparently the gang had claimed this short cut as their turf(i missed the memo) and while they normally wouldn't put up too much of a fuss, they had it out for my friends brother, and so by default my friend(missed that memo too), and surrounded us, pulled out their knives and began threatening us.
They were all older(15,16,17) and much bigger and apparently didn't think so much of white people. Luckily one of their new younger guys lived in my apartment complex and vouched for me as a "cool white boy", and they let us off with a stern warning and a death threat against my friends brother. Fun stuff.
I'm pretty sure *now* they really wouldn't have done anything, but that wasn't any help then. So sorry I can't offer any help or advice. I had to only deal with the possibility occuring, never with the actual act.
Posts: 251 | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
I was robbed twice in a few days by 3 9mm toting teenagers while working at a Papa John's. The first time wasn't too bad. The other manager had ALL of the day's money out of the safe and spread out in the office. The punks grabbed all of the money and split, after locking us in the cooler. They cleared roughly $2000+, a pretty good haul, which is why they came back a few days later.
The second time was far worse for several reasons. I really thought I was going to die. Fortunately, a cop had been driving by and saw them coming into our store with pistols. Unfortunately, he was having radio problems, and couldn't get off a complete message to HQ. But when our silent alarm came in a few minutes later, the cops knew there was a real robbery going down at Papa John's. Georgia Tech and Atlanta cops tracked down all three thugs within a short time after they bailed.
The stress from these robberies was a major factor in my flunking out of Georgia Tech that quarter. I was very paranoid for the next 6 months to a year and had nightmares, etc. After a while, the nightmares stopped and I went back to my old, nominally paranoid state: low-level paranoia shared by many city-dwellers in a information-based economy, not clinical paranoia (Thank God.) I still have trust and intimacy issues, but I had those before so it's hard to tell how much the experience changed me.
I imagine it would have been far worse if they had beaten me as well. I hope you weren't beaten too bad and that the robber(s) get what's coming to them tout suite.Feel free to e-mail me at pel@myway.com if you want to discuss it further. Also, thank you, Foobonic, for maintaining an outlet for HR pictures. I plan to e-mail mine as soon as I can dig up the floppy my only digital picture is on.
[edit: Possum, "feeling violated" sums it up beautifully]
posted
Sorry, Foo. Stuff shakes you up. Some stuff changes you forever. Just don't ever let it decide who you'll be.
Posts: 499 | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
Whoa. Andre. I hope you're okay, man. I've known of a couple of people that have been robbed and/or beaten by thugs and they usually experience a period of paranoia. I think, for the most part, they eventual got over it, but they've always been just that much more cautious since their experience.
posted
jehovid: i think thugs are scaried cats. for all they know i could have been the black version of jackie chan... thats prob. why the beat me down so quickly.
i do give them credit on pulling off their mugging without giving me a chance todo *anything* except be a punching bag.
good thing i have a thick skull LOL =)
where was batman or superman when i needed them?!?! /me officially denouces the super friends! Posts: 40 | Registered: May 2003
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Six years of karate has given me an undue confidence about my ability to defend myself. I still know that I'd be a puddle of goo if something like that happened to me, so I guess that's good.
posted
foo, have you considered calling victim services? I would think the cops would know how to get you in touch with them. Actually, I'd be kinda surprised if they didn't give you the information when you filed the police report. I'd give them a call. And call them if you feel like you need to talk about it. Or see a shrink. I think the research on debriefing is currently saying it doesn't help, but if you've experienced trauma before, it might be helpful. PTSD ain't fun. I'd also recommend writing down everything you can remember. Oh, and watch the second season of The West Wing. There is a great episode with Josh going through some post-traumatic stress.
(Noeman, I think you'd be surprised at how many people at Hatrack have experience with life threatening violent crime. )
Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
I have been at work so I could not reply to some of the comments I now see here.
It really brings this all back. It was a knife, not a gun (the 60's were a more primitive or safe? era) that I faced, but I think the effect was the same.
I can tell you that you can think about how you will react, but it doesn't mean s*** until you are there and then you really know. You have this big image of being Dirty Harry and when you can't be Dirty Harry your self esteem takes a big hit along with everything else. I think people think you should defend yourself against a knife but a gun is different. Well, just try defending yourself against a knife sometime.
You know, I really am not enjoying going back over this and it happened to me 36 years ago.
Foobonic, you will carry it with you the rest of your life. You can live with it though. I have...granted I don't ever want to have gun at my head and I really feel for you.
Take care. Talking about it helps.
(not going to edit this for spelling or anything else.)
Posts: 201 | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
Possum, you are correct sir... i always thought id pull some crazy kung fu-lee roy moves on any attackers, but obv. that wasn't the case.
2 things that bother me the most is: 1. the look in their eyes... all brown, cold, lack of sympthay... /me shivers 2. the words "nigge$ dont move don't say anything" as he waved his male extention infront of my face.
on a lighter note, i kinda think its funny how he said "dont say anything" and i said "ok i wont" and he punched me. i said "ok, ok, i wont" and he punched me again. maybe i should have learn to stop talking the first punch around?!?
i really appreciate everyone talking to me about this... ive been feelin so lonely and sad and like a little girlie (arnold the govenators voice) over this.
i still havn't decided if i should file a police report or not. they took my ID which has my moms address on it. they took it with a nice chilling death threat.
am i coward? or am i just overly worried they are going to wack my moms. bah... i am completely confused...
posted
I did not report it. I should have. Today, I would.
These are predators. No confusion about that. But you know your circumstances best and advice is too darn cheap.
What is that ethical thing: The action you should take is probably the one that is most difficult for you to do? Something like that.
I know a little of what you feel like and I know you have to come to grips with how it affects your vision of your self. You did what you needed to do to survive.
I was present at a robbery where guns were only mentioned (at the Denny's where I worked), and then some weeks later, was at the register during a robbery where a gun was actually pointed at me. I remember being verrrrrry angry. After all, I *was* giving them the money. A customer (who did not obey) was pistol-whipped out of my line of sight (I was obeying, you betcha). Luckily for Denny's, we had just done a cash drop, so they only got $75 and some change.
I just remember being very, very pissed off that someone had the temerity to point a gun at me. I also remember that I didn't *completely* obey, and snuck looks at the robbers and remembered to tell the cops about some tattoos and stuff. As far as I know, they weren't caught, though, as the Denny's was on a major highway, and they could have been from anywhere.
I drew a lot of pictures of the robbers to help me feel as if I were doing something about it, and I talked rapidly and endlessly to the poor policemen. Kind of in shock, I guess.
I'm so very glad that you were not hurt worse. You are a special member of hatrack. Keep safe, keep sane.
Posts: 1545 | Registered: May 2002
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posted
No, you're not a coward. Fighting back against a gun, especially when they have the drop on you, is usually just going to get you shot and quite possibly killed. When I was robbed the second time, the manager they chose to open the safe knew martial arts, but he did nothing but cooperate (after triggering the silent alarm.) The same thugs also car-jacked my old boss at another pizza place down the street a few days before they hit Papa John's. This guy was a former unarmed combat instructor for the S. Korean Army (and so presumably knew his stuff), yet he too cooperated and let them duct-tape him.
Choosing to not fight back when you're outgunned is intelligent, not cowardly. It can be hard to convince yourself of this, though. Possum sums up well in his "Dirty Harry" paragraph above. Talking about it could help you. After I was robbed I couln't shut up about it for weeks, telling it to anybody who would listen. I left out of my posts all the funny/weird bits that make it better story. Now it's just a painful memory I try not to think about.
As far as reporting it, you might consider it to help prevent identity theft if nothing else.
Ahhh, just reread your last post. . . You're not sure whether to report it because of a death threat to your mother? Tough call. I wouldn't call you a coward if you didn't report, though. I feel your pain, Foobonic. Hope you get over it quicker than I did. Posts: 6316 | Registered: Jun 2003
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posted
foobonic, I once had the pleasure of having half a dozen cops point their guns at me, along with very bright lights that prevented me from seeing them clearly, while they yelled directions at me that I almost couldn't comprehend from the sheer terror of it all.
I was 19, and the neighbor of a friend thought I was breaking into the friend's house. In fact, I had knocked on the door, was answered and was invited in. The neighbor called the cops reporting that I had broken through a window and clearly had a gun. As there had recently been some cop killings in our fair city, the vigilant policemen responding to the call took every possible precaution to make sure I was aware that was surrounded and that they would shoot if I made any wrong moves.
I didn't sleep real well after it was all over. Months later I was pulled over for speeding and cried and shook when the cop came to give me the ticket. He sat me in his squad car and talked to me a while. That helped quite a bit, actually. It still took a little while to get over it. (I didn't get out of the ticket. Oh well.)
Your experience sounds horrible. I'm so sorry. Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
geezus... the power of hatrack. i ask a simple question not expecting insightful responses. ohdang was i wrong =)
re-reading what ive wrote, and reading your guys/gals post (no offense) i would not want to trade with any of yall.
sorry to be so graphic when telling the story... its just one of the most vivid memories i think i will ever have.
just to clarify, they didn't make death thearts against my mom, the just took my ID, thru my wallet on the ground and pushed down harder with his shoe.
on a lighter note all the people at work point out that it no longer looks that bad... it just looks like eyeliner?!?! my response "purple just aint my color" LOL.
anywho, thanks a bunch everyone. you guys/gals have provided a source of unexpected strength by sharing.
peace. andre.
ps, sorry about the title... its so in your face and scary. i was just having a bad morning. =)
posted
i have been toying with the idea of taking a israli (sp?) anti terriost training course... i don't know if it will help with future muggins or the what not.
but firing small fire arms, and propelling down buildings sounds fun 2 me =)
Posts: 40 | Registered: May 2003
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I have no stories. Seriously. Lived for seven months in downtown Detroit, was constantly talking to everybody, and nothing ever happened. I'm very, very glad.
*smile* I correct you only because I want you to be the best "you" that you can be. And yes, I know that sentence ends on a participle.
I think you should take the Israeli anti-terrorist course, it just sounds like a blast. Dunno if it will help with muggings, but rapelling down the sides of buildings is just freakin' COOL! hehe Be sure to get plenty of pictures for the Hatrack Album~!
all of the jatraqueros
Posts: 1545 | Registered: May 2002
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posted
Possum - yes, I took a class that was a combination of street fighting and self defense (designed to stop a fight) and one of the most important things we learned was that a knife is a far more dangerous weapon in close quarters than a gun. Defending yourself against a knife, you almost guaranteed will be cut. A gun only points in one direction, which makes it slightly less difficult to defend yourself against (but I am by no means saying a gun pointed at your head is safe )
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Fortunately, a cop had been driving by and saw them coming into our store with pistols. Unfortunately, he was having radio problems, and couldn't get off a complete message to HQ. But when our silent alarm came in a few minutes later, the cops knew there was a real robbery going down at Papa John's. Georgia Tech and Atlanta cops tracked down all three thugs within a short time after they bailed. ![[The Wave]](graemlins/thewave.gif)
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on a lighter note all the people at work point out that it no longer looks that bad... it just looks like eyeliner?!?! my response "purple just aint my color" LOL.![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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all of the jatraqueros
