I'm just so happy to be alive

Deepthought

Think hard, often
Banned
Flounced
Joined
Sep 25, 2012
Messages
474
Reaction score
62
Location
N/A
I sell things on craigslist often. I had a gun pulled on me recently during a deal. He was trying to rob me and was forcing me to disrobe. I managed to throw my shirt at him and rushed and managed to get the gun off him, but not before it went off. No one was hurt. Looking back, I made some dumb mistakes. A lot of things happened. I don't know. I was ok and was joking with the police and all afterwards, saying I was used to it, have fight experience, etc. Maybe because I've lived in a rough neighborhood and have people I know in a few of these kinds of situations, I was surprisingly calm about it afterwards. Or maybe I was just trying to cover up my own fear. I just tried to accept it all. I haven't told my family-only that I got into a fight. I asked the police not to tell my parents about the gun part-I'm still young and my whole family lives together. I just don't want them to worry. And the police agreed to respect my request.

I know the best thing to do is to obey the guy with the gun, but the thing was, it was an open-ish area. And he was close to me but not within reach. I just had to rely on my judgement. I did what he told me to. He was really high. I came early and it wasn't late, but I had driven a way away and he was taking his time and it started getting late. He just suddenly pulled the gun out. All of his words were something like, "Do this and that or I'll shoot you!" He always ended it with an "or I'll shoot you!" I saw the gun pointing towards me and I just kind of, I don't know, shut down my thinking. I just though of my parents and what they would think if I died, and I thought of the bag things I had done in my life and how wasn't good to my little sister that day. So I took out my wallet and stuff. And my shirt. I wasn't sure what to do. It was like my brain was running on auto and things were occurring to me. The kind of stuff experts say you should do in these situations. I heard that running in a zigzag helps but he was just too close to me. But if I went after him...It would take me a several steps to get to him and in that time, he could just shoot. But I kind of stepped towards him under the pretext of getting my key from the ground, as he told me to. And took my shirt and threw it and grabbed the gun and just tried to keep pushing him off balance so he couldn't get into position. He was stronger than me but I had more fight experience. I remember what Bruce Lee said; something to the effect that if someone has a knife then he can only think about the knife when he fights. But it doesn't matter how much experience you have if the other guy has a gun-if he shoots, you're dead! But we both were fighting for the gun now. There were some points in the fight where I had the gun pointing at me but I had to or else I would have lost control of it. Control was the most important thing, because losing control would mean getting shot for sure, vs maybe getting shot if I had it pointing at me. I remember screaming a lot. Except when I had to conserve my breath. I was going like "huh! huh!' like in that videogame, the Megaman X series. Where Zero slashes with his sword and he makes those noises. I eventually managed to trip him over some kind of side curb thing and into the bushes as I had tried, and I had control over him. I twisted the gun from him and stood up and stepped the hell away. Never was I so relieved. I prayed aloud and I told the guy that I would do nothing to him, and to follow me. He ran away. The police came rather quickly, and we went through the usual stuff. I had some scrapes and my new sneakers had a hole in the top. I keep wondering, what if I moved this way, what if I ran, what if...? What about other people that it happens to? Or will happen to? And whenever I think about the part when the gun is pointed at me and he's telling me to do this and that, my heart just races and gut clenches and I shove the thought out. But I'm ok. I'm just grateful and happy and relieved.
 

Maryn

Sees All
Staff member
Super Moderator
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
55,447
Reaction score
25,474
Location
Snow Cave
We're glad you're alive, too. And we hope all future sales take place in a very public place with lots of other people around. There are bad people who will take what you have, and Craigslist is one way to meet them.
 

Kylabelle

unaccounted for
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 3, 2013
Messages
26,200
Reaction score
4,015
Wow, Deepthought, that is some kind of story. I don't mean I am not believing you, but that you lived to tell it. I am SO glad you did. And it's great you wrote it down like this, too.

I am really really glad you're here.

I got jumped once but thank the stars there was no gun involved and the fight, what there was of it, consisted of me managing to twist out of the guy's grasp and running and throwing myself at a lit door and ringing the doorbell and shouting at the top of my lungs. He ran off.

Anyway. Whew. Take GOOD care of yourself and, yeah, re-think about the Craigslist thing, okay?
 

shakeysix

blue eyed floozy
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 1, 2007
Messages
10,839
Reaction score
2,426
Location
St. John, Kansas
Website
shakey6wordsmith.webs.com
Wow! You are so brave! I'm so glad you did everything right. I appreciate your decision not to tell your mother but I am also a mother and now will be worrying about you as well as my own kids. To take the pressure off your mother. When you do tell her, I'll bet she cries. --s6
 

regdog

The Scavengers
Staff member
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 27, 2008
Messages
58,075
Reaction score
21,013
Location
She/Her
I am glad you're alive, well and unharmed.

Perhaps in the future you can conduct your sales transaction in the parking lot of the local police station. I saw on the news some departments are encouraging people to do that to remain safe.
 

Deepthought

Think hard, often
Banned
Flounced
Joined
Sep 25, 2012
Messages
474
Reaction score
62
Location
N/A
Thanks everyone. I'm going to be more careful and take more precautions from now on. Maybe I'll try selling online. But only meetups at the local public places.

And I don't know if I'll ever tell my parents about it. She would certainly cry and freak out. She does that a lot over small stuff. I can't even imagine what her reaction would look like. I really don't think I can tell her.

I had told my mom when I left and I texted her while the guy was looking through the stuff that I would be coming home soon. But it took a lot longer and later she said she knew something was wrong. And while I was talking to the police I asked them if I could talk to my parents to tell them everything was ok, because by then it was really late. They let me. I had spent a while in handcuffs and going through the procedures. One of the residents saw what had been going on, but not everything. He saw that I had the gun and that we were fighting but he must not have seen the part where the guy pulled the gun. Because it was quiet and all, and there only was noise after I was screaming my head off and the gun fired. So after the gun guy ran away, the other guy told me to let go of the gun and he told the officers to arrest me. I just complied with everything. And so it took awhile before I could let them know. And they drove all the way And when they did, my dad said that it could have been a lot worse, and the guy could have a knife or something. The cop and I glanced at each other but gave nothing away. That was a bad area and there have been several murders there, and a well publicized one.
 

Siri Kirpal

Swan in Process
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 20, 2011
Messages
8,943
Reaction score
3,151
Location
In God I dwell, especially in Eugene OR
Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

Oh, my! Glad you lived to tell us this one!

I've been there. Out ran a rapist once. And my mother and brother lived through a robbery where three armed guys told them they would kill them.

It's amazing how these things make it easier to be calm about the little things in life.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal
 

MaryMumsy

the original blond bombshell
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 18, 2008
Messages
3,396
Reaction score
829
Location
Scottsdale, Arizona
We recently had a 16 year old boy shot and killed over the X-box he was trying to sell on craigslist. The perpetrator was caught, but that doesn't bring the boy back.

MM
 

E.F.B.

Stories, stories everywhere
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 26, 2014
Messages
6,352
Reaction score
1,832
Location
Valinor
Website
www.etsy.com
I'm sorry it happened at all, but I'm glad you're okay, Deepthought. You should definitely stick to meeting at public places from now on.
 

CindyGirl

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 24, 2016
Messages
495
Reaction score
40
Location
Pennsylvania
Our local police stations now offer buyers and sellers parking spaces in front of their buildings. They are marked with signs and videoed 24/7. They run ads encouraging people to use these places to make their trade or sale.
 

Snowstorm

Baby plot bunneh sniffs out a clue
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 26, 2008
Messages
13,722
Reaction score
1,121
Location
Wyoming mountain cabin
What a relief, Deepthought! I've been fortunate and have never experienced such a thing. Here's to that being a dark time in your life and it'll fade to a bad memory, practically forgotten. Thank you for with your friends on AW! There's a lesson for all of us in your message.
 

Deepthought

Think hard, often
Banned
Flounced
Joined
Sep 25, 2012
Messages
474
Reaction score
62
Location
N/A
Thanks everyone. It funny but now I just seem to feel so much more confident now, and don't mind little things much. I hope I only get better from now on.