A few nights ago I drove to go and practice hitting some golf balls, I’m terrible, and so decided to stop at a shop on the way there.
Now I’m just in my own world, thoughts flowing constantly and so don’t think much of the shouting as I go into the shop; which has its doors open.
As I go in I can hear someone shouting get out but still I don’t realise he’s talking to me. Then I notice a dude without a shirt on approaching me menacingly, now I’m not a fighter but I instinctively turn into more a fighter stance and receive the hardest thigh kick I’ve ever had as he says leave.
Now you don’t gotta tell me twice I’m done with this shit and straight to golf. As I’m driving the next few minutes to get there I can’t stop thinking about what could be happening to the shop keepers. Not really a fan of the cops but in times like these I thought it necessary to call it in and they say they’ll send someone right out.
I call back the next day to get an update and they take a while to read the notes and say it turned into a serious incident and that an officer would call me. I have a family member in the police so for them to check and turns out it was armed robbery but she didn’t tell me anymore than that.
Just crazy when you’re put into a crazy situation out of nowhere.
Well in case this is a self blame/guilt response: How most people say they’ll react is almost never true in reality when put to the test, so just keep that in mind with some of the potential replies to this.
It’s interesting to think about however. If the shop keeper is a perfect stranger to me I’m leaving ASAP like you no hesitation sorry buddy. The guy I talk to every morning at the 7/11 by my house? I’m not sure, depends on the details in the moment.
I think whether or not you know someone, what OP did was probably the best decision. Unless you’re like extemely well trained and have a weapon, you most likely wouldn’t be of any help inside the store in this situation. Just get out and call for help (even though acab).
A few years ago before I moved, I went to the local liquor store for some drinks and munchies pretty late, but before the 2am liquor cutoff. A guy, obviously drunk as fuck stumbles in behind me and starts grabbing beers while I am paying. The cashier, whom I knew personally since it’s a small town and she was the mom of someone I went to school with, asked me to hang around for a moment because she was gonna have to decline selling to the drunk dude for being too obviously drunk (his pants were literally on backwards and he could barely stand). He comes up to the counter, she tells him she can’t sell to him, and he flips out starts yelling and cocks his arm back like he was gonna hit her so I just took a step forward and he turned to me, looks up at me and then just grabbed the card swipe machine and ripped it out of the computer and chucked it through the lotto display glass before leaving and I just immediately called the police. While on the phone with the cops and they ask what direction he went I hear more glass breaking down main street where he headed.
I can only assume it was my size and stature that scared him away from assault (I am 6’6’’ and this dude was below average height). If he tried to actually fight me, I dunno what I would have done. I took judo as a kid, but I wasn’t like super awesome or even do it very long. Plus, what if he had a knife or a gun? But it started to make sense why the girls working that store at nigbt often had their boyfriend and their friends hanging out in the parking lot most of the time.
I just wanted some fucking chips, man. End up there 2 hours because some drunk fuck caused a problem and I was a witness to it so had to give a statement and shit.
Back during the early days of COVID I seriously considered clubbing a moron over the head from behind who was hassling a little grocery store woman who was just trying to do her job and get him to comply with the store’s masking policy. I circled around behind him and had grabbed a heavy metal can of pineapple juice. Fortunately, he left when she told him to leave cause I wasn’t sure if she was going to be willing to help me drag his fat ass to my truck so I could dispose of his body.
Had a similar thing happen at a bank. Huge line because it was the Saturday after Thanksgiving, I’m stuck in the door waiting to move forward.
Suddenly this skinny little guy bolts out of the back room and starts slapfighting his way down the line.
Sheriff pops up right behind him and yells “Somebody stop that guy!”
Well, I’m in the door, and I’ve probably got 10" and 75 pounds on the guy. I plant my feet and decide that if he makes it to me, he’s not getting past me.
He makes it to me. So I clamp one hand on his shoulder, grab him by the balls and throw him to the floor, then cover him.
Whole time I have him on the ground he’s yelling “I aint fighting you! I aint fighting you!” while he’s clearly trying to fight me. I tell him “Dude, you’re only making this worse.”
Cop comes and cuffs him, stuffs him in her car.
She comes back to me, gets my info. Did he hurt me? No. Did he break my glasses? No. Wanted me to describe him, I told her dude was just scared is all.
“Hey, do I want to know what I just did?”
“No, probably not.”
I spent weeks thinking I was going to get called to court as a witness. Nope!
She comes back to me, gets my info. Did he hurt me? No. Did he break my glasses? No. Wanted me to describe him, I told her dude was just scared is all.
That testimony is probably why you weren’t called. That would probably hurt their case against him if presented as evidence.
It’s not about hurting the case, it’s just irrelevant to the charges in court. How a suspect is stopped while fleeing isn’t usually relevant to the charges against them. Especially since it wasn’t an officer that stopped them, but a civilian. That information will of course be in the report, but it wouldn’t be relevant in the court proceedings, especially not needing them to testify in person.
And they likely had whatever he was accused of doing and the camera footage. Probably took a plea deal or something.
