Sharing my story

Firearm Training Mental Training
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Most of you know I used to work at a gas station, and that I’ve been robbed 3 times there.

Now that I no longer work there, I can share this with you.

In the video it’s 2 different robberies.

The 1st video is from October 29th 11:40pm 2017 when I got robbed my 2nd time, and the 2nd video that’s inside the store, is my 3rd robbery that got me into conceal carry and made me join the journey I have become.

My first robbery was a simple robbery, dude comes in asks for the money, I couldn’t really hear him, as if his voice became a thought, I turned around asked him “What?!!” And he said give me the money give me the money now, and I opened the drawer gave him the money and he ran off, was never found. This was October 26th 3:20am 2017.

4 days later back on my midnight shift, and I seen him before he opened the door, he came in and rushed behind the counter acting as if he was holding a gun, and I got tunnel vision so bad on that gun, turned out not to be a gun at all, his hand got about 2.5 inches away from my face and all I seen was a glove. Instantly I was confused, the robber didn’t demand anything from me, said not one word. I push him back, open the register…. And he slams it shut. He pushes me with the same amount of force that I pushed him, and was telling me that’s not what he’s after and he pushes me down, I land in the stairwell where our tiny office is, and he steps over me, and I watch him grab our change box which was in a jewelry box, and run out the door. Once he ran outside, I opened the register, put 10’s 5’s and 1’s down on the counter, waited a bit, and then rush to the door to lock it as soon as I could and made my way to the backroom calling the police and the boss at the time.

That 2nd robbery felt like 5 minutes, let me tell you, my adrenaline was so bad I couldn’t even write, I was suprised when I reviewed the dash cam footage and seen it only lasted 15 seconds.

They was never caught, and at this point I’m only 20 years old.

Then a year later, November 12, 10:20pm 2018.
Robber comes in and scopes the place out, goes into the bathroom, comes out and walks in a different direction, I never seen him come and go.

5 minutes go by, a “customer” walks in and starts walking around the store, and started acting kind of weird and started asking me where product was in the store, and stood in a way where he could see the robber do his run.
At 10:30pm (Mind you I just came in at 10pm, this is a half hour into my shift we’re usually busy during this time) he asks “Do you know where the chapstick is?” Which is at the start of the video and you could see me pointing at the chapstick which is directly across from the door, I hear the door ring behind me, I look over my shoulder, as soon as I seen the mask, I knew, I went into a mini flashback and lightbulb went off in my head and I said to myself, “ROBBER!” Immediately he started acting like he was reaching for a weapon so that was my flinch reaction, I had to calm down a bit to give him the money, and I noticed the customer acting not normally, and I was actually pissed to later see him laughing it off.

I recorded the video to show the detective, nothing happened with him, he even tried throwing the description off and made an innocent old black dude, kind as can be, get stopped by the police after getting off of work, one of my regular customers.

That following week, I bought a gun, I called instructors before buying it, asking around and some advice, I had people at the range I bought it from show me how to shoot it, and got me a holster for it. I start researching people to take conceal carry classes with, I went and took one.

About a week after the class, a sheriff shows up to my moms house, and he gives me the preliminary hearing, 3 days before the hearing I apply for the concealed handgun license, on the day of the hearing I picked it up. Starting the new year January 3, 2019 I finally decided to go with USCCA, and my journey has set sail.

At the hearing was both the robber and the driver, I talked to the victims advocate and I asked 5 years for both, which was granted to the robber, but not granted to the driver he only got 2, but he also got other criminal charges he’s facing.

As of now my robber is in a halfway house about to be freed in November of this year.

The video is here below

And here is the article to the 1st two robberies.

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@Forensic_Wow
Anyone of these incidents could’ve gone south in a hurry, you could’ve ended up shot and killed, but you kept your composure and did the right thing. You avoided it by cooperating with the bad guy. Even if you had been armed he had the drop on you. The other bad guy you pushed you took a real chance there because he may have had a gun. Thank God you came out of that one well and not hurt. The way I see it God has a plan for you. Thanks for posting the video and continue to be a responsibly armed citizen.

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Thanks for sharing.
I must ask: did you talk to those close to you about these incidents?
Not everyone could handle these types of experiences well and should seek help.

My story: I won’t go into details but Sunday afternoon, I had to call the local PD for an incident. While on the phone, I was still shaking 30 minutes after it happened.
I found it hard to sleep that night.
Monday at work, I was still affected by it.
So, I spoke with my work buddy and two other persons I trust. Felt much better.
I even considered calling our employee assistance hotline.

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Didn’t know what else to do. There was nothing in his hand, when it was 2 inches away from my face. It had me puzzled and confused, and it was the scariest of them all, because the only thought is he’s here to take you out. You’re the only witness.

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I’m no expert on the topic but suspect in many if not most cases of store robberies like the ones you unfortunately had to endure it is best to cooperate and give them the money even if you were armed. They are usually going to have the initiative as well as all the momentum and aggression on their side when they chose to act. Even without a weapon they are capable of seriously harming or killing you and you can’t be sure they don’t have a weapon. It’s just money and it’s not even your money.

But if you feel that complying won’t keep you from severe bodily harm then you have to look for an opening to steal the initiative from them and present them with more aggression than they are willing or able to deal with.

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Yes but afterward I just wanted sleep. Sleep is peace. Last thing I wanted was to think about it

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What can you expect something from this?
Flashbacks
Disassociation
Your mind running through everything especially when you’re dealing with it in court. Everything that happened, everything that was said in the court room, everything you remember.
I was constantly going to work thinking is this the night I get robbed?

Until I got my conceal carry and starting learning stuff, I reworked the question of am I going to get robbed to I’ve been robbed what am I going to do about it, and that helped cause a lot of relief.

There would be incidences where I thought I was getting robbed when it comes to working halloween, and when that adrenaline hits a few times I’ve had to stop my sympathetic response, if I was carrying during that 3rd robbery my sympathetic response would of taken over and I would of drawn on him and without knowing it.

I’ve had to practice getting out of tunnel vision at times, one night seen a guy with sunglasses on in the middle of the night walking to my gas station, adrenaline hits, tunnel vision hits, and I had to remind myself look at his hands, what’s in his hands? Newspapers. He’s here to deliver newspapers and he wore the sun glasses because the lights at night mess with his eyes.

When covid hit, it was horrible, once the mask mandate came, the adrenaline spikes, the flashbacks, but I trained to work through it.

Originally I requested to not work alone but they couldn’t accommodate me, so I went back on midnights.

Should I be sharing this probably not.

But you’ll never be the same afterwards. Never.

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I did have one coworker who would ask questions, and I’d answer them, then they would turn around and tell the manager that I’m making them feel uncomfortable on the midnight shift and was told I could be fired for inducing panic.

And they told us it was against company policy to speak out about it.

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I agree. That’s why it’s important to talk to the “right” person.

I have a small circle :o:

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I for one am very grateful you shared this with us. It is instructive and visceral. It is a point of view that few of us have experienced.

I think I speak for the group when I say thank you @Forensic_Wow . Thank you and we are glad you overcame these events with courage and calm. Well done sir.

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Yes. That is the general recommendation. Active Self Protection channel talks about this stuff a lot when looking at footage. If they start moving you around, to a back room, on your knees, etc, those kinds of red flags might change the calculus.

Also, as John on ASP says and I agree, whatever you do, do it completely and fully. No half measures. If you’re going to comply, comply 100%. If you’re going to fight, wait your turn (where applicable), and when you go, go 100%

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Forensic_Wow.

Thank you for sharing. When I was in college, one of my classmates smelled of gasoline, as he worked at a gas station. I am humbled by the work, and even more so by your courage.

Peace be with you. I’ve always liked and followed your posts since I joined.

You’re a classy gentleman.

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I always try to be helpful and willing to share my thoughts, and ask questions.

It was fun working at the gas station, after I got robbed my 3rd time, I’d always play videos like the one below on my midnight shifts. I’ve had people give me crazy looks and just leave. They started to hit every other gas station in town except mine.

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I do want to note, I’ve talked on Tik Tok before about losing your motor skills due to adrenaline, and an apparent military guy told me not everyone panicks.

But adrenaline is not really panicking, adrenaline is the beast or the storm within you, your mentality or mental state is what causes you to panick, under adrenaline you must be the eye of the storm, or the calm in the storm.

Initially in any incident where your life is in danger you’re going to have to fight adrenaline a bit, and fighting adrenaline is a bitch. But once you get everything analyzed and can make rational decisions, adrenaline will be your best friend.

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I’ve taken a dry fire training course that teaches triggering an alpha brainwave state in order to calm and focus the mind so you can control the adrenaline rush. You use meditation and/or an app that plays tones through head phones to teach your brain what it feels like but with practice you can enter the state just by thinking about it while taking a breath.

I’ve only gotten to try it once under real stress when someone tried to run me off the highway twice. It helped. But I mostly use it to help chill out while trying to anticipate the random beep on my shot timer.

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If you haven’t already, I HIGHLY suggest you subscribe on YouTube to Active Self Protection. A lot of lessons to be learned from his videos.

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