Lucky Escape

Today just before 4pm I was rolling out our skins for the night when I heard a noise in the front of the shop.

Three Aboriginies (Australia Indigneous) came in the shop even though our doors were closed (not locked) and the closed sign was up. Our opening hours of 5pm opening is clearly visable on the doors.

They said they wanted pizzas and I told them we were closed and didn’t start until 5pm. One guy was near the till (Open but no money in it) one mid counter and another on the side of the counter which leads behind the counter and to the kitchen area. He was a big guy about 6ft and 220lbs.

I was fairly assertive and told them to grab a menu and leave the shop and come back at 5pm. I guess they were caught off guard at my actions and response and they left with one turning and mouthing some obsenitives.

A couple minutes later they walked into the Asian Wok Noodle shop a few doors up from us and held them up. First thing I know is when a customer knocks on the door inquiring whats going on. I knew nothing about until this time.

The police were there and had the area secured off. I went to the detectives and asked if it was 3 black guys and yes it was, right down to the description I gave them.

Guess who’s doors will be locked unless open for business from now on?

How lucky can you be.

Dave

omg how scary is that ?

I’m glad they decided to move on and not hold you up.

We had a similar experience around this time last year. We are in a plaza with three other stores. A video store, a bank and a chinese restaurant. We are next door to the chinese restaurant. At close, the owner of the chinese place came over and told me(in the very little english he knows) that there was an attempted robbery that night.
A guy came in through the open back door with a gun with his face covered. Had the gun pointed at both of them up by the register yelling for money when a customer came in through the front spooking the gunman and he ran out.
It was then I realized that we had our back door open around the same time this attempted robbery happend.
All I could picture is this guy standing out back looking at two open doors and thinking of which one he wanted to go in and rob.
Needless, to say, we adhere to a strict backdoor policy now. And as far as I know, the customer that broke up the robbery is still getting free chinese food a year later.

hows that gun ban going on down there dave? i like my concealed carry permit and my 45 auto. :smiley:

Dave
Last night must have been a night for robbers. The movie store next to me was held up at knife point. The guy had been in my store 5 minutes earlier but I had about 5 people in at the time so they left.

Lucky no one was hurt and the staff at the movie store had done the cash drops as required so all they got was the $200 float and a PS3.

Our gun ban from the Port Aurthur massacre a few years back was on automatic rifles.

Unlike the USA we don’t have an open policy on gun ownership so not many people own guns. Plus it is illegal to carry a firearm in public even if it is licenced unless you are going to a gun club or going to the country for shooting. If you don’t have your licence on you, then it’s big trouble. All guns have to be kept locked up in a approved wall cabinet / safe.

Without wanting to offend anyone (but I probably will) I don’t understand the laws in the USA which allows such openess to gun ownership, and to offend those further, I must say gun ownership sickens me, especially with so many multi shooting episodes we constantly hear about on the news. Sorry folks but that’s my honest and open opinion.

None the less we do have gun ownership and while there are guns available someone will always get their hands on one either from a robbery from where one is kept, buying one legally (getting harder to do so) or getting one on the black market. This will always lead to some low life scum using threatening force and intimidation with guns to hold up hard working law abiding businesses who work their guts out over long hours scrapping out a living.

Sorry about my “soap boxing” but it touched a raw nerve with me. Luckily we have the freedom in our countries to express our thoughts even though my may have offended some, but so be it. I spoke freely and honestly.

Dave

Dave

Canada is much the same as Austrailia as far as gun laws but the gun laws didn’t stop the robbery at the movie store with the knife. Criminals will find a way to take what they want even if the weapon is a filed down screw driver.

So get ready to register your screw drivers.

If guns are outlawed then only outlaws will have guns!

I will not try to knock you off your soapbox, but as long as the government allows me to, I will protect myself, my family and my employees with the firearms that I own. As you have seen first hand, the gun laws in Austrailia will not keep guns out of the hands of those doing the robberies, and if my gun is locked in “an approved wall cabinet/safe”, it just keeps me from having an chance to protect myself.

So how come in the US which has more permissive gun laws than Canada and Australia has a murder rate that leaves Canada and Australia in the dust?..About 2.5 times higher in US than Canada or Australia…

Orson Wells’ 1984 all over :slight_smile:

Dave

Paul
That’s the joys we have of living in a democracy.

Luckily for us the firearms issue is not as bad as in the USA. We “enjoy” the fact that we don’t have mass school shootings or too many crimes where guns are used or where people are shot dead.

I understand your sentiments about owning a gun to protect and unfortunately there will always be the scumbags around who put people like yourself in the scenario to owning a gun for protection.

Dave

Now without doing the research, I can’t tell you which of these corelate best, but I can throw out many possible reasons. Perhaps there are many more extremely densly populated places in the USA than Canada and Austrailia. Perhaps the education level may be generally highr for Canadiens and Aussies. Perhaps there are wide differences in sentences for breaking the laws between the countries. Maybe there is more money per capita spent on law enforcement in the other countries. Perhaps the average american scumbag is just scummier that the avg aussie scumbag. I’m sure a bit of research would eliminate a few of these, but I would bet you could find many many things that have a direct correlation to murder rates in these countries(including gun ownership laws). As Dave’s experience shows, there are some that will ignore the laws no matter what, and I chose to protect myself and those dear to me from these people.

amen paul !!! i hope to never have to use my gun.but some scumbag threatens me or mine i will drop em like a sack of taters better to be judged by 12 then carried by 6!!! i respect people that see things in another way then ownership and i hope there never put in a position where they wish they had a gun .i just dont want to be a statistic :shock: i like to have a back up plan other than 911

In many forums this subject would instantly bring out the worst in some posters. Nice to see differences of opinion being expressed with such diplomacy.
I grew up with guns because they were a part of our environment (semi-country, US). I have raised five children and now have grandchildren so the issue of guns has always been on my mind. I make it a point to read and research situations that occur in the US that involve guns. I have done this for many, many years. I have read far to many stories about situations people have been in where the ownership of a gun has saved them from considerable harm and even death. A tracking of individual state activity in the US clearly indicates that the crime rates are lower in states that do not suppress the ownership of guns. Images appear in my mind from time to time. What if my wife, child or grandchild were threatened by hoodlums? What chance would I have without a gun? We live in a upper scale type community and there have been several armed break-ins when residents were home. Residents have been beaten up quite badly and one family had their daughter raped. Can you imagine having that happen and not being able to do anything about it? The last time it happened here the husband and wife were simply shot and killed. Never thought it would happen when we moved here 30 years ago. No slums in our area and we have a small, easy-to-get-to-every-house community where the police should be close by. Still, this happens here.
For me I am convinced that I do not want to be without a means of protecting my family. When I was a boy we never even used to lock our doors; now we have alarms/security systems. Times and people are different now. There are far to many young people who have little respect for laws, teachers and even the police. It seems to be o.k. to lie and steal as long as one does not get caught. Armed robbery and other crimes are merely a step up from the juvenile behavior of their youth. And why not, if they go to prison (IF they go to prison) then most likely they will be out on parole very soon anyway. What do they have to fear?

Paul. A scumbag is a scumbag no matter where they are. Jail is too good for some of them. I call them parasites of the human race. Any research will tell you there are some people who just don’t fit.

If you feel the need to protect yourself the way you do against these scumbags then go for it.

Dave

Just to be clear (and to cut through a little trendy rhetoric) . . . gun or no gun, if your are assaulted or victim of an attempted robbery then you ARE a statistic. If you insert 45 grains of hot, high velocity lead into another human, you are still another statistic. You are just parts of different groups analyzed and reported.

Guns don’t kill statistics, statisticians do. Statistics are neither created nor destroyed, we just change populations and confidence levels.

Do what you need to do to feel safe and protect those you love. Sadly catch-phrases won’t do that in this day and age. I do hold out hope, though.

Just an update on what happened yesterday.

The scumbag trio went from a video hire store to the chineses restuarant tnen into my store. I must have looked like a bald fat angry ant (the whole 5’5" 190lbs of me) to them as the video servelliance outside the shops showed them hustling out of my shop. They then went ito the mall and went to a surf wear shop and got the short shrift from there, where they proceeded to the chemist shop (drug store to you guys) to see what they could do there. The video camera caught them going into the noodle shop and then 1 of them coming out struggling with the owner. He broke free and escaped.

They only got away with the owners bag with his mobile phone and shop keys (locked changed immediately).

Lots of good coverage on video security so won’t be long before these ar#@holes are behind bars - only if we get a judge with enough guts to throw the book at them.

Luckily some good things - no weapons used just rough house tactics (push and shove). No one injured. No real value items or cash missing. Everyone now on alert (as we all should be).

And best of all - NO GUNS !!!

Second best thing - the big burly female detective. Hot looker, about 6’2" with a strong body :wink: Get her into leathers and she can get the handcuffs out and start beating me wth her batton. :lol:

Guilty as charged 8)

See what the izza industry has done to me.

Dave

[size=7]George Orwell’s [/size]1984

Glad to hear that you came out of it ok. Keep that door locked and hopefully it never happens again.

 On the gun ownership issue.....I own and carry a Sig .40 S&W, and I feel it is just another part of my job in providing a safer work place for my employees and myself.  I would also much rather live in a place with a bit higher murder rate and the right to defend myself rather than the opposite.

What a stuff up. :oops: :oops: :oops:

Didn’t Orson Wells play the part in the movie?

Shame on me :oops:

Dave