A lucky escape
I'm putting off doing something that I know I should be doing, so, inspired by a local news story about a foiled convenience shop robbery, I'm going to post about something that happened about 16 years ago instead.
I was working at a small supermarket in a town centre. We had one large main entrance for shoppers, and a separate entrance to a 'kiosk' where we sold spirits, cigarettes, newspapers and lottery tickets. Staffing the kiosk meant being on your feet all day (or rather, run off them), but at least afforded a bit more variety than checkout duty, and quiet periods allowed for people watching out of the front windows.
One Saturday lunchtime I was looking out towards the town hall when a police car screamed down the road, lurched onto the pavement outside, and slammed its brakes on. It was followed by another, and then a police van, and then a dog unit. I was glued to the front window like a stick-on Garfield when the armed response unit turned up, and I decided that actually if anything was going to go 'bang' I wanted to be a bit further away from the glass.
Uniformed and plain clothes police started scuttling around all over the place and one came into the kiosk.
"Have you seen anything strange outside the shop today?"
'Such as?' I asked (we had some fairly strange customers on occasion...)
"Bloke with a sawn-off shotgun?"
'Nope - pretty sure I'd have remembered that...'
It transpired that two large, heavily armed men had attempted to rob the Co-op Funeral Parlour next door. The police were fairly sure they'd intended to rob the kiosk, and had run through the wrong set of doors.
I was working at a small supermarket in a town centre. We had one large main entrance for shoppers, and a separate entrance to a 'kiosk' where we sold spirits, cigarettes, newspapers and lottery tickets. Staffing the kiosk meant being on your feet all day (or rather, run off them), but at least afforded a bit more variety than checkout duty, and quiet periods allowed for people watching out of the front windows.
One Saturday lunchtime I was looking out towards the town hall when a police car screamed down the road, lurched onto the pavement outside, and slammed its brakes on. It was followed by another, and then a police van, and then a dog unit. I was glued to the front window like a stick-on Garfield when the armed response unit turned up, and I decided that actually if anything was going to go 'bang' I wanted to be a bit further away from the glass.
Uniformed and plain clothes police started scuttling around all over the place and one came into the kiosk.
"Have you seen anything strange outside the shop today?"
'Such as?' I asked (we had some fairly strange customers on occasion...)
"Bloke with a sawn-off shotgun?"
'Nope - pretty sure I'd have remembered that...'
It transpired that two large, heavily armed men had attempted to rob the Co-op Funeral Parlour next door. The police were fairly sure they'd intended to rob the kiosk, and had run through the wrong set of doors.
In about 1966 I was dragged out of bed by armed police with dogs, held under a light, and compared to a photo. I was stark naked, my girlfriend was screaming, and the whole business was very frightening. It was when Frank Mitchell had been sprung from prison by the Krays, and some idiot had told the police they'd seen him going into my Fulham house. I never received an apology.
ReplyDeleteEek - that does sound frightening.
ReplyDeleteNot in the same league, but Matt was once pulled over by the police on his way home, arrested on suspicion of armed robbery and put into custody. Luckily for him it was a quiet night and the custody sergeant was also a biker so he left the cell door open and supplied Matt with tea and company. It turned out that someone had been riding up to petrol stations, pulling out a hammer and robbing the counter staff. Matt and his bike fitted the description given by the counter staff to a T. The thing that saved him? He'd put an illegal aftermarket exhaust on his bike and the robber had the factory issue exhaust on his.