Posted in the outdoor section yesterday:
In '99 I was in a convienence store in SoCal and bought a mag (High Times it just so happens). I handed a clerk a twenty and he hands me my change. I put the $ in my pocket, turn to leave and I feel a hand go in my pocket and take my money.
I look and walking away is a guy about 6' 3" (I'm 5' 10").
In addition he was in a lot better shape than me, and looked to be about 25 years old (I was twice that).
I thought about my options for about a second.
Should I get in a fight on the floor of a liquor store with someone who could almost certainly beat the crap out of me, who may have had a gun or knife, and who may have been high on PCP, for 15 bux?
If someone offered me $15 to wrestle with a drugged-out PCP freak on the floor of a store in downtown L.A. I would have turned him down.
So I did nothing.
I watched him leave and a few minutes later I left, and safely a block or 2 away called the police and reported it.
Because it was not worth $15 to me to end up beaten up, or knifed and lying on the floor with my blood gushing out of me, or dead.
Instead I went home, smoked a j and drank a beer.
Later that night I went back to that store to talk to my friend, night manager RayRay.
"Shit that was you?" he asked "the camera behind the counter here was smeared and I couldn't tell"
"It was me."
"How much did that ****er steal from you?"
"15 bux."
"Here" he says, and hands me a $50.
So it was either getting beaten up (at least) and STILL not get my 15 bux back, or let it be and avoid the danger (and in this case make $35.00).
And now I'm living up here in the woods and grow marijuana legally. The other guy? Who knows, prob. in prison or dead.
Added:
To anyone who's interested, let me expand upon what happened at the liquor store.
The guy who stole my money was part of a 3-man team; 2 black guys and a white guy, all druggies.
As I was driving towards the store I noticed someone (a white guy) peeking around the corner of the building. But when I pulled in I didn't see him so I thought ok, just another weird-o.
He was the "lookout" and the guy who would go through someone's car while the driver was in the store.
But it did seem strange. I sat still for like half a minute. Something seemed "fishy". Before I got out of my van I took my wallet out of my pocket (several hundred $$ in there, along with my i.d., etc.) and stashed it in a little hiding place underneath the dash. It was where I sometimes stashed dope.
This took half a minute and as I opened the door there was that white guy standing right there. Apparently he had hidden and was waiting for me to exit and probably thought I already had.
"What do YOU want" I said, scowling.
"Err-ahh--do you know what time it is" he asked.
This is a question muggers ask. They want to see what kind of watch you have.
I looked at my $20.00 timex and told him.
After locking my van and setting the alarm (something I don't usually do if I'm going in a mini-mart) I walked into the store. As I made my way to the magazine rack I notice a black guy hanging out next to a small table, talking to the clerk. That was the 2nd member of the gang.
When I went up to the counter, the 3rd guy, who had been over my the candy rack when I walked in came up behind me, took my money and started to walk out.
"HEY" I yelled and turned, took one step after him then thought better of it.
The clerk took a half-step himself, then realized he'd better not.
I called the cops on the way home and they asked me if I wanted to file a complaint, but I was scheduled to move hundreds of miles away in a few weeks so I declined.
But I kept in touch with RayRay, so I kept up-to-date.
What this team would do is wait until the clerk chased after the guy who took a customers $$. That's when the guy who was hanging around the counter would hit the register.
They had already tried this at 2 other stores nearby, a donut shop and a pizza place. Neither place had they got the clerk to chase after the big guy.
They got busted the next place they pulled that at, where a customer had fought back and the cops had been ready.
The guy who was hanging around the counter had a .32, the big black guy had a small leather bag filled with shot (a 'sap'. used to knock people out) and the white guy outside had a metal pipe.
They all were convicted on testimony and videotape. I never heard what their sentence was.
In '99 I was in a convienence store in SoCal and bought a mag (High Times it just so happens). I handed a clerk a twenty and he hands me my change. I put the $ in my pocket, turn to leave and I feel a hand go in my pocket and take my money.
I look and walking away is a guy about 6' 3" (I'm 5' 10").
In addition he was in a lot better shape than me, and looked to be about 25 years old (I was twice that).
I thought about my options for about a second.
Should I get in a fight on the floor of a liquor store with someone who could almost certainly beat the crap out of me, who may have had a gun or knife, and who may have been high on PCP, for 15 bux?
If someone offered me $15 to wrestle with a drugged-out PCP freak on the floor of a store in downtown L.A. I would have turned him down.
So I did nothing.
I watched him leave and a few minutes later I left, and safely a block or 2 away called the police and reported it.
Because it was not worth $15 to me to end up beaten up, or knifed and lying on the floor with my blood gushing out of me, or dead.
Instead I went home, smoked a j and drank a beer.
Later that night I went back to that store to talk to my friend, night manager RayRay.
"Shit that was you?" he asked "the camera behind the counter here was smeared and I couldn't tell"
"It was me."
"How much did that ****er steal from you?"
"15 bux."
"Here" he says, and hands me a $50.
So it was either getting beaten up (at least) and STILL not get my 15 bux back, or let it be and avoid the danger (and in this case make $35.00).
And now I'm living up here in the woods and grow marijuana legally. The other guy? Who knows, prob. in prison or dead.
Added:
To anyone who's interested, let me expand upon what happened at the liquor store.
The guy who stole my money was part of a 3-man team; 2 black guys and a white guy, all druggies.
As I was driving towards the store I noticed someone (a white guy) peeking around the corner of the building. But when I pulled in I didn't see him so I thought ok, just another weird-o.
He was the "lookout" and the guy who would go through someone's car while the driver was in the store.
But it did seem strange. I sat still for like half a minute. Something seemed "fishy". Before I got out of my van I took my wallet out of my pocket (several hundred $$ in there, along with my i.d., etc.) and stashed it in a little hiding place underneath the dash. It was where I sometimes stashed dope.
This took half a minute and as I opened the door there was that white guy standing right there. Apparently he had hidden and was waiting for me to exit and probably thought I already had.
"What do YOU want" I said, scowling.
"Err-ahh--do you know what time it is" he asked.
This is a question muggers ask. They want to see what kind of watch you have.
I looked at my $20.00 timex and told him.
After locking my van and setting the alarm (something I don't usually do if I'm going in a mini-mart) I walked into the store. As I made my way to the magazine rack I notice a black guy hanging out next to a small table, talking to the clerk. That was the 2nd member of the gang.
When I went up to the counter, the 3rd guy, who had been over my the candy rack when I walked in came up behind me, took my money and started to walk out.
"HEY" I yelled and turned, took one step after him then thought better of it.
The clerk took a half-step himself, then realized he'd better not.
I called the cops on the way home and they asked me if I wanted to file a complaint, but I was scheduled to move hundreds of miles away in a few weeks so I declined.
But I kept in touch with RayRay, so I kept up-to-date.
What this team would do is wait until the clerk chased after the guy who took a customers $$. That's when the guy who was hanging around the counter would hit the register.
They had already tried this at 2 other stores nearby, a donut shop and a pizza place. Neither place had they got the clerk to chase after the big guy.
They got busted the next place they pulled that at, where a customer had fought back and the cops had been ready.
The guy who was hanging around the counter had a .32, the big black guy had a small leather bag filled with shot (a 'sap'. used to knock people out) and the white guy outside had a metal pipe.
They all were convicted on testimony and videotape. I never heard what their sentence was.
