While it is important to gain life experiences in order to grow as a person, some are worth not having.
Friday night after I picked the boyfriend, Ryan, up from the airport, we were held at gunpoint and robbed.
An event like this always happens to other people. You hear about it, you shutter, then you appreciate the fact you’ve been safe.
And then it happens to you.
It’s important to share this story with everyone to remind you that we are not invincible. While I know I shouldn’t stress about what happened too much because I would lose faith in humanity, I should become more aware of my surroundings and take extra precautions.
Unbeknownst to us, while I drove through the alley to the parking lot behind my house, a car was waiting in the alleyway. As I parked, the car followed behind us. The passenger jumped out while Ryan and I were unloading our luggage and cocked his gun and said, “Give me your money.”
Surprisingly I was calm but I think it was more from being in shock. Ryan gave him all the money he had and I followed suit. Unfortunately I only had $3 in my wallet. The guy yelled at me saying, “I know you have more than that!” Ryan answered for me saying that I really didn’t. We were then told to give him our cell phones, which we didn’t have on us.
With the gun still pointed at us, he told us to throw our keys (probably so we wouldn’t follow him). I just stood their stunned so Ryan had to take the keys from me and throw them. The guy told us to walk to the front of the house and he ran to where the car he got out of was waiting.
I ran to the front of the house and banged on the door for one of my roommates to let me in. As soon as she did I ran to the back of the house where Ryan was already looking for my thrown car keys. Eventually we found them under some snow and came back inside. It was there that Ryan and I finally talked. As soon as he asked if I was ok I started sobbing. Hmm. It’s not comforting to realize this happened right outside your house.
We called the police, who came in less than 5 minutes. Unfortunately the guy looked relatively normal so a vivid description was hard to come by. While we were talking with them though, they were having the police stop any cars that fit our description. So far there has been no luck finding the guy.
That night I didn’t want to spend the night in my house so Ryan and I ended up driving to my hometown late into the a.m. Even though I had to work the next morning, my coworkers completely understood why I wasn’t coming in and were very helpful; (they actually contacted media outlets that had posted my address and asked them to remove listing the exact location).
Speaking of media, I was contacted by several news stations the next day and asked to do interviews. I ended up contacting one of them and agreeing to them sending out a reporter/cameraman to my house. I did the interview, which had obvious leading questions such as, “So when will you be sleeping in your house again?” “How will you feel about that?”
“Well reporter, I’ll feel excited and fabulous knowing that I was robbed outside my house.”
In reality I wanted to do the interview to increase college students’ awareness. We all are young and believe we are invincible. For example, there are so many young women who walk home alone late on a Saturday night with the belief that nothing will happen to them. Another common occurrence for college students is walking around late at night while talking on their cell phones. Because of this, they are not aware of their surroundings and are leaving themselves vulnerable.
Being in my hometown helped me have a nice, relaxing weekend. Unfortunately though I had a nightmare last night about being held up by a gun. (Someone who lived close to me was always on the sidewalk with a huge shotgun. To get away from him I had to jump into a lake where some other people were rolled up in what looked liked a pumpkin roll without the cream cheese filling. I got inside of the pumpkin roll to keep safe. We then ate French toast in the lake; although I remember there was too much syrup.)
The dream may have been littered with food but I still woke up feeling anxious and nervous about returning to school today. To help me feel more at ease, I’m going to start carrying around my mace at all times and some cash; I feel like having cash will be best for not making a criminal angry (I don’t think the $3 cut it for my robber).
Keep safe.
Be aware of your surroundings.
And hope for peace.
