The Most Terrifying Moment of My Life so Far

Don't you hate those days when you just want to write, but can't think of something to write about?  It's one of those days for me.  I checked out a list online for a journal prompt.  I went with the very first one that I could blog about and it was "Name the most terrifying moment of your life so far".  So read on if you're interested....I hope that I haven't blogged about this before.

About 5 years ago, I had to go to work because of some issues and problems that my hubby was having.  I went to work at my MILs grocery store that she owned with her hubby.  It was an IGA grocery store in Renton, Washington.  It was a 45-50 minute drive from my house, and that was in good traffic.  The nice thing about working for my in-laws was that she worked with me and my schedule. 

When I started there I worked in the deli/bakery.  It wasn't a hard job but it was challenging. Only one person worked in there during a shift.  The store wasn't large enough to have more employees in that area.  After I had worked there for a while, I was able to move into the checkstand and be a checker.  I still worked in the deli/bakery though. 

The store closed at 11pm, but since I had such a drive home my MIL didn't want me there past 8:30.  That was the latest shift that didn't close.  One evening, I was working up front in the checkstand with another gal who was fairly new.  Now I can't think of her name.  We'll just call her Jenny to make this easier.  Our manager, Jill, was in the back working on things that she needed to do for her shift and closing. 

A shorter man appeared in front of my checkstand and yelled that he was robbing the store.  My first reaction was, "Yea, right." and I thought it was a kid that worked next door pulling a joke on me.  So I laughed.  I don't remember laughing but I remember the guy telling me that this wasn't a joke and not funny.  Of course, he came to MY checkstand and told me to open the drawer. 

He was dressed in a huge purple sweatshirt with a hood on and he had the hood over his head.  He also had a bandanna tied around his face with sunglasses over his eyes.  His whole face was covered.  He told me he had a gun and wouldn't take his hand out of his pocket.  I don't think he really had one, but I wasn't going to test him.

When he came behind me and told me to open my drawer, I remember feeling that this can't be happening to me.  Then I thought about my kids and Greg.  Our cash registers were set up in a way that we could open our own drawers, but we had to enter our number and password.  When we logged in, we could choose our password numbers for the day so they were always different. 

I couldn't get my drawer open because I was shaking so bad and nervous.  The guy told me to hurry up, he said he knew that I could open the drawer myself and he would shoot me if I didn't hurry.  I told him that it was difficult to do it correctly when he was yelling at me.  I laughed at my bravery and snottiness later.  I am still me even when I am afraid.

I finally got my drawer open and the guy took the money out of the register.  But he was nervous!  And he wasn't smart because all of the big bills were UNDER my cash tray!  He left them! 

He was so nervous that he didn't hear the other cashier calling for our manager over the intercom.  When you picked up our phones, it beeped over the intercom, so she hid her hand and barely lifted the phone and beeped that intercom over and over.  The guy was so nervous that he didn't ever hear it!  In fact, he looked at her right when she was doing it and told her not to even think about picking up her phone to call for help.  That was sorta funny.....later.  Not then.

After he took the small bills from my drawer, which was not very much, he took off out of the store.  I was quite shook up.  Our manager comes strolling up to the front, in no hurry.  She thought that Jenny and I were just playing around.  The rest of the night was a jumble of nerves, cops, questions and then the drive home.

This experience scared me so bad that I couldn't go back to work.  The thought of that guy coming into the store and seeing me, the person he robbed, just creeped me out.  He could walk in and just be a regular customer.  It was 2 weeks before I even went back into the store, and only to get my paycheck.  I have been in car accidents, and even one with my kids, had that tree fall on the house which was terrifying, and some other scary incidences.  But I think this tops them all.