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Originally Posted by nstygma
can you comment more on that?
also i'm curious, did you have any PTSD from that experience?
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the gunman was ex military. his two accomplices were waiting in a car and they were both active duty military. they had attempted two other robberies and had planned out 5 in total. they had collectively served 5 deployments in the middle east. So I think PTSD had something to do their actions. The gunman was hard up for money. the other two were doing robberies for the rush.
the video went up 2 days after the robbery. the video was posted by the police department on youtube and they monitor their own page. they noticed that one IP address connected to one youtube account had viewed the video over and over. So they served a subpoena to Cox, the only ISP in town. The 3 robbers were taken into custody 8 days after the incident. When I was interviewed by a detective, he brought me up to speed on all these details and told me that the 3 robbers had given each other up within minutes of being taken in.
these guys were really dumb in what they did. I put about $300 in the back pack. then the robber ordered me back down on the ground. then he spent at least a minute yelling, taunting, and threatening me because I couldn't get into the safe. the gunman took off on foot and dropped about $180 in cash while running away. the cops got there and literally followed a trail of money to where the getaway car had been waiting. I didn't bother to zip up the bag.
so they got about $120 from the robbery. But the robbers destroyed all the evidence they could. the guy set fire to all his clothes and boots he was wearing. he defaced the shotgun to remove the serial numbers and threw it into a river. when you consider the cost of those things, the robber had a net loss of $800 or more.
in answer to your question about PTSD. I certainly did have quite a bit of stress. I finished my shift that night and worked there for another 6 months. the primary reason I quit was because I was having panic attacks. there were other incidents after that that spooked me. I busted people having sex in the bathroom. I caught a man and a woman smoking crack or speed by the dumpsters in the back of the store. there were multiple occasions when a thug or some wannabe gangster would give me a punk test. I witnessed a strong arm carjacking once too. but the victim wouldn't press charges for assault because the carjackers were actually just stealing their own car back.
I finally quit after 13 months of working there because the store manager wouldn't schedule me with enough hours to work full time and get benefits.