My Experience Being Robbed Three Times
I've been through something that most people will never experience. I've been through a bank robbery not once, not twice, but three times. Here's what happened.
When I was in college I worked as a bank teller to put myself through school. Of course we were trained in what to do if a robbery ever happens, but much like a fire drill, you just feel like it's one of those things that will never happen to you, until it does.
One day I was casually going about my job when a fairly normal looking man walked up to my teller booth and passed me a note that said "give me all your money. I have a gun. I'm desperate." In that moment all of my training went out the window. It was like I was in a complete fog, slow motion moment. I handed him everything I had in my till and he left.
As soon as he got outside the door I started crying and yelled to my co-workers "I was just robbed!" They pulled the alarms, called the cops, and I remember having nightmares for days afterward.
It was a tough experience, but I figured I got through it and that it would never happen again. I couldn't be more wrong. Two weeks later the same thing happened. I was the direct victim of a bank robbery again. My friends and family could hardly believe it. I thought I didn't recognize the man, but a traumatized brain does some crazy things nd can play tricks on you. Surveillance showed it was the same man who had robbed me two weeks earlier! Apparently he thought, "that was easy money, I'll do it again!" This time he was caught despite me not following procedure again! I later had to identify him in court, which was no fun at all.
At this point I thought, I've been robbed twice it can't possibly happen again, but guess what... a few months later, it did. There wasn't any violence. he simply passed me a note that threatened violence and I gave him my money.
I remember meeting with a police officer and her saying, "You know, you could do a lot of different jobs, why are you doing this?" I toughed it out until I started my career in radio, but every time I mention to people that I've been robbed three times they say "what?!?!"
Have you been through anything that most people have not? How did you handle it?