The Tale of The Robbery

So, ProgressiveU has been down as most of you have undoubtedly noticed by now. And you even managed to survive an entire weekend without it. Now that we're back up and running after the server issue (heretofore known as the Great Server Debacle... because it sounds cool); I thought I would start the resumption of blogging festivities by continuing (sort of) my last entry.

As I mentioned in that entry, my baby cousin died last Monday. His funeral was Friday and it was incredibly heartbreaking. It's still a very sad situation, but we'll make it through it somehow. I mentioned at the end of my blog that my faith in humanity was slowly being restored thanks to the kindness of strangers during this period in our lives. I now have to confess that mere hours after writing that entry, my faith in humanity was once again dealt quite a blow, but I refuse to let it win.

Several months ago, my husband decided he wanted a 60 inch television. I flat out refused so in compromise, he took a second job, clerking at a gas station on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. I didn't want him to take the job, but he wanted that t.v. and figured as big as he is, he'd be safe. He didn't make much, but he was slowly saving up for that monstrous television and he honestly enjoyed the work and getting to know all the people.

Friday night, he went to work as usual after making sure I was okay with it. I was exhausted from the emotional turmoil of the week and just wanted to go to bed. So, I finally fell asleep about 11 or so. An hour and a half later, the phone rang. My sister brought it to me.

"Fallon, we've been robbed."

I sat straight up in the bed, my heart already pounding from the news I'd been dreading hearing since he started the job. I asked if he was okay. Physically, yes, he was fine. But, he was absolutely terrified. He and his coworker were, at that moment, locked in the cooler, waiting for the police to arrive.

The police arrived and they spent the next 2 hours reviewing the security tapes, dusting for fingerprints (which they were able to lift off of a candy bar that the jackass took back) and taking statements. When he finally got home at nearly 3 in the morning, he was still shaking and so was I.

He sat down to tell me about it. At 12:30, a man came in the store, got a honey bun and a candy bar and approached the counter. He got to the counter, turned around and took the candy bar back to the shelf. He then came back to the counter and handed my husband 50 cents for his candy bar. My husband opened the door just enough to drop the change in and looked up as his coworker shouted. He was looking directly into the barrel of the gun pointed at his head.

He froze and the guy started screaming for him to give him the money. He just stood there, not quite believing that it was really happening. His coworker yelled at him to listen to the man which served to snap him out of it. He handed over the 120 dollars in the drawer and put his hands over his head. The guy grabbed the money, his honey bun and hauled ass out the door, gun still drawn. They stood there for a moment, not sure if he was gone or if he was hanging around watching them.

My husband finally told his coworker to lock the door while he called 911. He picked up the phone and the thing was dead, so he crawls under the counter and pushes the alarm button. They hightail it to the cooler and lock themselves in. He uses his cellphone to call 911 while his coworker uses the store phone to alert the security company.

By the time the cops get there, he's already called the manager who has called the district manager. Everyone is on their way to the store. The police get there, they tell them what happened, they pull the tape and watch it before they dust for prints. Somewhere in the midst of dusting the counter, my husband blurts out that the guy had a candy bar and took it back before reaching the counter (which for some reason is the only part of the store under video surveillance). They find fingerprints on the candy bar and take the video tape to play on the news should the fingerprints be less than useful.

My husband hands his boss his keys. The boss begs him not to quit because he's "the best employee" they have. Hubby tells him the desire for a television isn't worth having a gun held to his head ever again and quits anyway. He gets home and for the first time since he called me at 12:30 I get to see for myself that he's okay.

I, naturally, fly into his arms and start crying because he really is okay. Even though he'd assured me he was fine... it's not quite believable until I see him standing in front of me. I smother him in kisses, make him take two over the counter sleeping pills, and he tells me about what happened.

It's now Monday and he's still upset. We were watching Season One of Smallville last night and in one of the episodes some chick that can morph into other people turns into Lex Luthor and robs a bank. Hubby flew out of the bed with a shout when the gun came out of the bag on the screen. I felt so sorry for him. And then I was so completely furious at the asshole that put the gun to his head.

Absolutely nothing gives anyone the right to do that to anyone else and it infuriates me that people simply don't care. Holding a gun to someone's head is apparently, a much easier way to get $120.00 than getting off your lazy ass and getting an effing job. And I know someone out there just read that and thought "but maybe he has a job and is desperate."

I don't really give a flying fart if he has a job and his child is being refused a kidney because his employer doesn't offer insurance. There is no excuse good enough for willingly putting someone else through that; I don't care what the circumstances are. If you're stupid enough to hold a gun to someone else's head for any amount of money or any possession, you deserve to rot in prison.

And sadly, robberies and other violent crime are on the rise in my town. Even more frustrating than that rise, though in crime is how little the general public is doing about it. We bitch and piss and moan and groan, but we certainly don't propose solutions. That isn't our job! That's what the police are for. We won't start neighborhood watches and we won't call the police to report suspicious behavior. We just turn the other way and bitch when it's all done.

So, it did my heart good to get the news I got from my husband today. He isn't just turning the other way. He's applying to work security here in town. His reasoning? He doesn't want anyone else to go through what he went through on Friday if he can stop it and even though being a part time security guard may not do much in the long run... it's infinitely better than sitting around and waiting for someone else to do something. I'm so very proud of him right now. As much as I wish he'd forget the second job, I can't argue with his reasoning... it's been mine for a long time too.

That reasoning is part of why I'm studying criminal justice. I'll never be a cop, I may never prevent a robbery or stop a gun from getting into the wrong hands, but I can help ensure that the system we have works and that people like this idiot don't get pushed out the door because the prison has run out of room and we need to house a drug addict or for any of the various other reasons so often used.

Change starts slowly... one person and one goal at a time. It may not seem like much in the beginning, but imagine how much it can become. That's what I'm thinking about today and how I'm looking back on Friday. I'm not thinking about how much people suck or how wrong some people can be. I'm taking the lead from hubby and renewing my commitment to not be one of those people that bitch and do nothing. I'm looking at Friday not as the day I could have lost my husband, but as the day I remembered why my major is criminal justice. And for that, I'm glad.

I have a lot to be thankful for today, but nothing moreso than that my husband is truly one of those amazing people that continually inspires me by continually refusing to be "one of those people" no matter the provocation. We have enough of those people already, even here at ProgressiveU. It's nice to know that the other type not only abounds, but are never more than an arms length away.