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.
"**** 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.
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.
"**** 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.