when I was much younger. I was robbed once.
It was quite a surprise, since Metro Police were regular customers and I gave them free coffee and every other perk I could to keep them as regulars.
I'll never forget it - I was filling the beer cooler when I saw this guy be-bop up to the counter. I came out of the cooler and greeted him "Hey! how's it going?" He seemed like an extremely nice guy, as he greeted me back. I got to my spot and slammed ny hand down on the counter and asked "What can I do for you?" and flashed my best smile. He said "you can give me all your money." I laughed, because that was a common joke, and said "no, really, what can I do for you?" He replied "I said you can give me all your money". His face was serious, and I saw a movement at his belt-line. Looking down, I saw he was cocking a small pistol in his belt. I raised my hands, and pulled the cashdrawer out so he could watch as I pulled out the cash and gave it to him. He asked me about the other register, and I went over and pulled out the empty cashdrawer and showed it to him.
"it's empty, see?" He asked if I had anymore money stashed anywhere, as he was on his way out. Of course, I said no. We also had a height strip posted at the door, so I could give an accurate report of his height to the police.
Our company had very strict rules about not having more than $60 in a drawer at a time. They also had multiple signs posting that we did not have access to more than that and apologizing for not being able to break big bills (both an apology to our customers and a warning to crooks - pass us by, we're not worth it!)
Of course, I called Metro. They responded quickly (I guess all that free coffee and joking around paid off!). While they were taking my statement, they got a call that the guy had been apprehended. Seems that he had just gotten out of jail his friends decided to go joy-riding and knocked off several C-Stores.
To be honest, I was really intimidated by his gun because it wasn't very large. Afterwards, my cop friends told me that I was lucky because it was a small caliber which tended to be more deadly because they would enter and then bounce around tearing out your insides, rather than a large caliber that would have been a clean through and through.
There were more interesting things that happened in the aftermath (including my court testimony, where I was asked to look carefully at the defendant to verify my line-up testimony, and while staring into the defendant's eyes he eventually looked down and away, as if he couldn't stand the scrutiny), but I won't mention them here. I'll be happy to give more info for anyone who wishes.
But I NEVER felt the need to conceal carry or open carry any kind of weapon before or after.
Perhaps it was because of the precautions that our company had taken.
Otherwise, my company sucked. They eventually went out of business, but I suspect that the founders are sitting on a tropical beach sipping pina coladas and laughing that someone actually paid good money to buy their company (I won't mention the name, but it's initials were Hot Stop - oops!)
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