This post is dedicated to store owners, Bob and Jean. Two Of my favorite people.
It was December 27, 1997 and I was way late for work at my second job in the local Mom and Pops convenience store. I normally went in at 1:00 on Saturdays, but I had a funeral to attend (in the rain) so, it was 5:00 PM when I arrived. Should have waited till 7:00.
Let me paint a little picture of the lay-out of the store. Two cash registers side by side facing the back of the store. To the right of the register on the right is a counter and vice versa. In other words, if you're standing facing a register your back is to the door. That is how Carrol and I were standing on that cold, rainy, one customer in the whole damn store night. I was on the right and Carrol was on the left.
Around 6:15 my partner had just fixed himself what must have been one Hell of a sandwich and we were standing there chatting while he was devouring his creation.That's when I heard the telltale "squeak" of the door. (apparently a sound that Carrol did not detect, because he was eating and talking) Anyway, I turned my head to greet whoever was entering, but all I could see was a black trench coat opening up and the barrel of a .410 shotgun being raised to point at me. Immediately, the accomplice of Mr. Trench Coat scurried around to my side of the counter, waving two pistols at me. Well, my mama didn't raise no fool. I was quick to figure out that this was a stick up! At the same time I'm thinking, Two pistols? Really? Isn't that over-kill? Do ya think if you only had one I would balk and say, "Oh, Hell no, Mr. One Pistol, you're not gettin' a penny from this old girl. If you had TWO pistols...now THAT would be a different story!"
Believe it or not, I actually had the presence of mind to remember how to open the cash register and I did just that! Then, without even being told, I began to extract money from said register, beginning with the 20's and working my way down to the smaller, less desirable bills. Two Pistols had to lay one pistol on the counter in order to free up a hand to take money from me. Money that I just couldn't wait to give him!
Somewhere in all of this, with my left eye I caught a glimpse of Mike (our only non-gun-wielding customer) walk up to Carrol's side of the counter and then quickly retreat to the back of the store. (guess Mike's mama didn't raise no fool, either)
About the time I was digging the 5's out of the drawer, I heard a sound. It was the sound of words being filtered through bread and other sandwich material. For God's sake! Carrol was still eating that damn sandwich and talking to me, completely oblivious to the fact that we were being robbed at gunpoint!
So, after handing Two Pistols the less desirable one dollar bills, I stepped behind Carrol and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned and (I swear this is the truth) said, "What's goin' on?" (I'm guessing this is where he FINALLY put the sandwich down) Well, upon noticing a man standing there pointing a gun at his head, Carrol began doing what I had just done, emptying a cash register. He started with the less desirable one dollar bills, but something tells me that Two Pistols didn't even notice.
At some point, while Carrol was handing over cash, I noticed that Two Pistols was having a hard time cramming all that cash into his pockets. So, being the customer-oriented girl that I am, I asked him if he wanted a bag. He didn't, but (being the customer-oriented girl that I am) I wasn't taking "No" for an answer. I asked again. He still didn't want a bag, but at least I tried. In retrospect, I suppose he may have thought that I could be the second Annie Oakley and that maybe there was a gun hidden down there where the bags were kept. Actually there was a sawed-off shotgun down there, but that was the farthest thing from my mind. The ONLY thing that interested me was getting them out of the store without Carrol or myself having to eat any lead. Besides, I'm pretty sure Carrol was already was already full from his sandwich.
Under the watchful eye of Mr. Trench Coat, who was still poised at the door behind us with his trusty .410, my partner handed the last stack of bills over to Two Pistols. Then came the moment that I'd been anxiously waiting for...the bad-boy gun-slingers exited the store, without firing off a single round.
This is where Carrol redeemed himself for the sandwich eating and talking during the entire first half of the robbery. As I was hitting the floor and grabbing the phone from under the counter, he snatched a pistol out of a drawer and headed out the door. I remember saying to the 911 operator, "We've just been robbed and there are shots being fired in the parking lot!" That's the only part of the conversation that I can recall, because I was completely consumed with terror and had no idea what was actually transpiring in the parking lot. I know that I was sure relieved when Carrol came back through the door bearing not a single bullet wound.
It seems that, with Carrol firing over their heads the bad boys didn't want to take time to stop and climb into the getaway car, so they just ran right past it and disappeared into the woods. The female driver of the car took off down the road. I suppose she thought the boys would come back out to the highway and that's why she turned around and came back, but upon seeing Carrol out by the road (pistol in hand) she decided that was a bad idea after all. In an attempt to make a quick turn around she pulled into the path of another driver and got T-boned, which disabled her stolen ride. At that point the woods on the other side of the road looked pretty good to her.
The long and short of it is: the girl was apprehended about an hour later and claimed she had no idea that the guys were going to rob the store and she didn't know that the car was stolen. (in her defense, my friends and I always carry our shotguns when we shop in convenience stores...never know when a game bird might fly off a shelf... and it's not unusual for us to drive cars with screwdrivers sticking out of the ignitions, because we tend to loose our keys) Mr. Trench Coat and Two Pistols were arrested several days later. They all were convicted, served time and have since been released.
I had only been working at the store for three months when we were robbed. The next day I showed up for work again and did the same for the next nine years. Did I really say, "My mama didn't raise no fool"???
