traitorjack
New member
my brother (old_yout on these boards) and I have a restaurant in the bar/restaurant district of our small/medium sized college city, a relatively upscale area; we've been open for about a year. last night, one of our worst nightmares came true, after a fashion. about 9:00 last night, a regular came into the kitchen to tell me that he'd just been mugged in the back parking lot. I was in shock, I couldn't believe it, my jaw dropped. I put him on the phone with 911 and listened as he told the dispatcher what happened. apparently, a black teenager in a hooded sweatshirt accosted him with some kind of object held inside his sweatshirt, demanding $20. the customer, a pretty big guy, figured immediately that the kid was simply poking his finger inside his shirt and told him, "Forget it!", getting back inside his car and driving around to the front, where he came back into the restaurant to call the police.
I grabbed my Sig P220 and two plastic cuff restraints, my brother checked his Security Six, and we went looking in the parking lot.
IN THE MEANTIME, the kid must have simply waited for the next guy to come into the lot, because, using the same finger-under-the-sweatshirt tactic, he held up ANOTHER of our customers, who did give him $20. that customer told me later that the kid then demanded another $20, which he gave up, and then here's the real kicker -- the kid said, "I'm just kidding man, here's your money back." he actually gave the money back.
by the time my brother and I searched the lot, he was gone, but unbelievably, he showed up again. my brother spotted him from a distance, and precisely at that moment three police cruisers blasted up and two officers on foot chased him down and caught him. it turns out that he'd been breaking into houses in the area as well.
this happened last night, and I'm still a little shaky just putting the story down. I suppose I'm posting this just to share what happened and to declare, even in hindsight, that there's no doubt whatsoever in my mind that if he'd been in the lot and made that same threatening gesture, we wouldn't have gambled that he was unarmed and he would be dead now for whatever sick joke he thought he was playing. the police did say that he was still committing armed robbery, what with the perceived threat of a weapon and the taking of the money, no matter what else happened.
(aside: the first customer had already had dinner, he was leaving; the second one and his daughter stayed and had dinner despite their experience. they dined on the house, of course.)
I grabbed my Sig P220 and two plastic cuff restraints, my brother checked his Security Six, and we went looking in the parking lot.
IN THE MEANTIME, the kid must have simply waited for the next guy to come into the lot, because, using the same finger-under-the-sweatshirt tactic, he held up ANOTHER of our customers, who did give him $20. that customer told me later that the kid then demanded another $20, which he gave up, and then here's the real kicker -- the kid said, "I'm just kidding man, here's your money back." he actually gave the money back.
by the time my brother and I searched the lot, he was gone, but unbelievably, he showed up again. my brother spotted him from a distance, and precisely at that moment three police cruisers blasted up and two officers on foot chased him down and caught him. it turns out that he'd been breaking into houses in the area as well.
this happened last night, and I'm still a little shaky just putting the story down. I suppose I'm posting this just to share what happened and to declare, even in hindsight, that there's no doubt whatsoever in my mind that if he'd been in the lot and made that same threatening gesture, we wouldn't have gambled that he was unarmed and he would be dead now for whatever sick joke he thought he was playing. the police did say that he was still committing armed robbery, what with the perceived threat of a weapon and the taking of the money, no matter what else happened.
(aside: the first customer had already had dinner, he was leaving; the second one and his daughter stayed and had dinner despite their experience. they dined on the house, of course.)
What if the police hadn`t shown up and you had the BG in sight? I know what I would do. No, I wouldn`t shoot him if it wasn`t necessary. There`s been far too many shootings of "honor students" on their way to midnight basketball. 
