Have you ever feared for your life and if so what happened?
Not to put a damper on New Years festivities but around an hour ago I was held at gunpoint in a grocery store parking lot. Exited the store and a guy in a hoodie who was standing outside the automatic doors started following me. I looked back a couple times, and the third time I noticed he had closed the gap and was within 15 feet of me. I turned and faced him and before I even got a word out he showed the pistol in his waistband and told me to give him the bag.
I set the bag on the ground and took a step back. He took the bag and told me to give him my wallet and keys. I said I had walked to the store and he pulled the gun out and said he saw me get out of my car. I set my wallet and keys on the ground and he told me to throw them to him. I backed up again and told him he can get them.
As he moved towards them, two cop cars pulled in with lights and sirens and one was yelling from a megaphone to get on the ground. The robber put his hands up with the gun still in hand and the megaphone cop yelled gun and for him to set it down. Robber set it down, walked a few steps away then laid down on the ground. There were 4 cops - two moved in on him and one basically dove on him. Cop 3 still had his gun on the guy and Cop 4 was still in the car.
The shopping center parking lot had one of those police watch towers that is always flashing and the lot was pretty well lit. Apparently someone had seen me with my hands up and called 911. I only had my hands up for around 30 seconds and the whole confrontation between the robber and I lasted maybe 90 seconds before the cops came.
Cops said they always have a patrol parked on the other side of the shopping center and it just so happened there was another patrol driving on the adjacent road that heard the call go out.
Frankly I’m still shook. It’s a one in a million chance that the cops were there, not to mention that no shots were fired. I’ve never really felt helpless before - when the robber showed the gun, I really was at his mercy. There wasn’t anything I could do. I live in an upscale suburb where stuff like this doesn’t happen. Very lucky no shots were fired. Extremely thankful the cops not only were so close but also how professional they were. Looking back at it, they controlled the situation from the time they arrived. They pulled in no lights, one on each end of the parking lot row. Turned lights on and yelled clear instructions.
Dude who called it in was at the store to get ice cream just like I was. I still haven’t told anyone what happened and an debating telling my parents. Still in the “what the fuck just happened” mode.
Anyways, Happy New Year. Hopefully nobody gets robbed in 2022.
Glad nothing happened. Shows you gotta enjoy life before you realize life is too short.
>Get's robbed at gunpoint.
>Immediately posts about it on WSO.
You really are a true primate. Glad you're still with us, Arroz con Pollo.
/
I was visiting Israel and wanted to visit Bethlehem. This was in the early 2000s before the apartheid wall was well known. The bus I took stopped at the wall and I got out alone. The wall was guarded by multiple IDF with machine guns. I told them I wanted to go into town to see the church built by the crusaders on the sight where Jesus was born. They said “you could if you want to, but for us its dangerous”. I thought “if it’s dangerous for the guys with machine guns I’m fucked” but went in anyway. The first part was to walk down this long canyon between the walls which essentially was a kill zone. Once I got into the town, it looked almost like a normal town in the United States jam packed with houses and retail stores, most similar to the hilly environment you might find in the southern part of San Francisco, the inspiration for the song “little houses on the hillside”. The entire place looks completely abandoned absolutely no one was walking in the streets or visible anywhere, it looked like a post apocalyptic scene. The walk to the church was about a mile. It looks like the entire town was recently abandoned, for example on the movie theater it had a poster for the movie Black Hawk down with had just come out. Also on a lot of buildings were posters from the various Palestinian militant groups which were all made in Photoshop and had the exact same aesthetic as dirty south rap covers with omnipotent people, lens flare, etc. I thought I was going to be snipered at any moment, suddenly up on one of the hills I saw a single car driving around, which I thought might eventually come for me. I arrived at the church and they were a few people selling tourist trinkets outside to no touritsts. I went inside and it was beautiful, particularly the Greek Orthodox part. I made my way back the same way without incident. I later learned that the entire city was on lockdown due to the Israeli election that was going on at the time.
If you ever get robbed, do literally everything the robber says. No material possessions are worth losing your life over.
Yep... as the old saying goes, cemeteries are full of brave people.
Give them everything they ask for, yes but do not leave the scene with them under any circumstances.
OP, where are you located? Glad it worked out OK all things considered...
Moving to atlanta after graduation in May and working in Buckhead. Is Buckhead worth living in, or should I go more outside of the city towards like Brookhaven or Chamblee. It's tough because I'll be a recent college grad and still want good nightlife, but obviously would prefer to not get shot.
Sounds like you need some survival training
In all seriousness glad you’re alright and didn’t end up losing anything (especially your life). Good thing you knew to just hand them whatever and not get shot over a few bucks.
3 near-death experiences, but very different from yours and nowhere near as intense. the first 2, I can't say that it's the same thing because in the moment I didn't know I was at risk of dying, but it was one of those "shit that was close" moments. was hospitalized about a decade ago, essentially I destroyed the inside of my esophagus and nearly filled my lungs up with water (thus nearly drowning myself from the inside). since I'd never heard of anyone dying in this way I didn't know it was fatal, but hearing the doc tell me how close it was after the fact was a little jarring to say the least. that, and about 5 years later one random evening, finding out the morning after going to a bar that the very bar my boys and I were at was the target of an ISIS attack that night, they found the guy trying to cross the border with a wile e coyote amount of explosives. I didn't tell my wife that story until about 2 years after the fact.
third and least intense, and getting held underwater by some big (big for me) waves during a big swell in the caribbean about 11 months ago. I've wiped out many times, I've gotten cuts, concussions, broken boards, and seen a shark (just once), I've never been held underwater by the force of the ocean and just had to try to relax while being unable to breathe. that was the scariest moment I've ever had in the water, just looking up (water was clear and I opened my eyes), seeing the surface, but not being able to do a goddamn thing about being stuck underwater.
my experiences pale in comparison to literally staring down the barrel of a firearm, so I cannot claim to know what that's like, and you're definitely within your rights to call me a huge pussy, but all these experiences do is further my stoic beliefs. death is inevitable. no matter how hard I work out and how healthy I eat, it escapes nobody because life can throw you a curveball and sub 10% bodyfat does you absolutely nothing in the face of a hollowpoint or a suitcase of C-4. I don't live recklessly like every day is my last day on earth, but I put off very little. I plan for the future because statistically I'll live to my 80s-90s, but I don't forgo experiences, because you can do everything right and still get a bullet between the eyes just because some unfortunate soul crossed paths with you one night. life is short, get busy.
should go without saying, but glad you're OK bruv
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