Monday, September 29, 2008

Held Up At Gunpoint

Envision this: It’s Saturday night, Lotto night, and you want to play it. You have big dreams of winning the jack pot. So you stop at your ATM to get out some cash and then you go to the store to buy your tickets. You get your tickets and you get back in your car. You go to your next destination. In this case, you go and you get out of your car. You’ve been there many times before without incident. This time, however, it’s rather isolated and you’re alone. You probably think nothing of it as you’ve been there a thousand times before and it’s always been safe. This time, however, as you’re walking into the building, a car drives up. You don’t think much of it—you think it’s security. However, a guy with a gun hops out of the car sticks the gun in your face, yanks your cell phone out of your hand and hurls it to the ground and smashes it. Then he demands all your cash or else. This happened to my oldest son last Saturday night. He works a lot of side computer jobs so he goes all over town, and it seems, even late at night on Saturdays. Luckily, the robber didn’t hurt my son and he only got $35 in cash which is all my son had on him. He didn’t take the credit cards or anything else. The police took what was left of my son’s cell phone to look for the thief’s prints. The robber was caught later this week. It turns out that the man was waiting at the ATM, killing time before he went to rob a house (nice guy, right?) When he saw that my son got out cash, he followed him. He waited while my son went into the store where there were several other people. Then when my son drove away again, the guy followed him again. He was waiting until my son stopped somewhere secluded to make his move. Supposedly this guy was from Miami and likes to come up to Broward (our county - where Ft. Lauderdale is) to rob people who get out cash at ATMs. I’ve heard about things like this from the Internet and whereas I read them and went yeah yeah, I’ll keep an eye out while I go to the ATM, I really thought it was just one of those paranoid emails that circulate. For all I know, that’s how the thief got the idea. I have to wonder if stealing $35 was worth serving years in prison (I don’t know how many the guy will get). I’m also not sure if they caught the thief because of my son or if they caught him later and connected him because of his prints on the cell phone. I stop at the ATM a lot. I usually only get out $20, just enough to get lunch. I watch the people around me, and so far, no one gave me bad vibes and so far, I’ve not noticed someone following me. The son that got robbed is a really bright guy, so if he didn’t notice, I have to think he’s not the only one who could fall prey. We, his family and friends, feel blessed that our Luke is okay. Not only do we love him dearly, but he has a wife and two small children depending on him. What a tragedy this could have been. You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Cindy Spencer Pape are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh my gosh, Ashley!!! Is he okay? I know you said he wasn't hurt, but a hold up leaves scars. The night terrors and paranoia.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's just horrible!

Molly Daniels said...

Thank God he's okay and that the guy was caught!

Sandra Cox said...

Oh, Ashley, how scary for all of you. So glad your son is okay and they caught the man who held him up.

Anny Cook said...

I'm so glad that he's okay. Been robbed. It will be a while before he's able to stop looking over his shoulder.

Trixie said...

Wow, he is so lucky, and that is great news the thief got caught, it doesn't seem to happen much these days (the getting caught bit)

Unknown said...

Yes, he's fine. At least he seems to be. DS1 hides his emotion well and is very level headed. I'm sure it's spooked him at least a little. He's only human. But I imagine he'll handle it as well as can be expected.

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