Who would have thought the day would come when my
hyper-vigilance would come in handy, heck, even be approved?
Learned during a childhood full of violence in the home, my
watchfulness helped to deflect, manage, contain, and defuse more situations
than my mother or siblings ever knew, though as a child I was limited in
stopping all of it. But I studied the habits of my mother's husband, and
learned to read him well. I became practiced in the art of subterfuge in the
aid of the innocent and have employed that skill in many situations throughout
my life.
I've never understood the concept of waiting to be a victim
of a death threat when action will do. I've hardly had anyone agree with me as
they seem to think that being a sheeple will not make the bad guy angry.
They don't understand that anger has nothing to do with the
ability and willingness to do violence.
When I was 20, I was held hostage for 45 minutes by a man
with a gun while I checked people out at the convenience store where I worked.
When the last customer was gone, I bagged up his purchases and the money. When
he told me to go in to the storeroom, he said, "I'm going to tie you
up." He showed me the duct tape.
I said no and did not move from my spot behind the
register. He couldn't believe it. He said, "You do realize I have a gun?" I
said, "I do. But I'm not going to voluntarily walk into a private place
where you will without fail hurt me and then kill me. We will do this
publicly." He insisted I go. I insisted otherwise.
But one thing was clear to him, and I saw it in his eyes.
He knew I was going to fight him and, if I didn't win, at least I wasn't going
to voluntarily make it easy for him to be mean to me. Oh,
yeah. At the very least, his DNA would've been under my fingernails and between
my teeth.
He was pulling out his gun when another customer walked in.
He said, "You have no idea how lucky you just got." Oh, I knew. I had
a lot of practice sizing up evil.
The man was never found; his getaway was clean. One month
later he came in the store again. I saw him when he hit the door. Watching me
closely, he went through the store and got in line. I knew that if I reached
for the phone, he could very well have turned violent. When he laid his stuff
on the counter, I checked him out, bagged his purchases, and took his money. He
just kept smiling but with an expression that said: She is real. I did not imagine what
happened that day.
I gave him his change and said, "I know who you are.
Get out." He never uttered a word, just kept a bemused smile like he
couldn't believe this was happening to him. As soon as he was out
the door, I dialed the police and told them he had come in again. My customers
never knew a thing...and they were safe.
Well, it seems I've done good in both instances, family and
in public. The Brevard County Sheriff (in Titusville, Florida, near Daytona)
just released a new video saying that. Sheriff Wayne Ivey was on the scene at
Orlando's recent carnage wrought by another evil dude.
I encourage you to watch his updated active-shooter video
called: It's Time to Fight Back.
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