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Speaker 1: This happened last January. I had taken a week off

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of work following New Year's mostly in hopes that everyone

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else would be back at work by then and I

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could enjoy the week without it being busy everywhere. My

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plans consisted of shopping around and really just chilling at

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my apartment by myself. On this day, I was out

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driving around in the snow and going to a few stores,

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then made my way back to the apartment by seven pm.

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I went inside and cooled off, then took a seat

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on the couch with some snacks I had just got.

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I was watching TV and even dozing off a little

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bit from the long day out of the house. But

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then at some time around eight thirty, the PA system

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in my apartment buzz, meaning that someone was outside and

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wanting me to let them in the building. I had

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no plans of anyone coming over, so I had no

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idea who it was. They buzzed my room again, so

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I got up and went to the window that faced

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the front of the building. I tried to not lift

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the blinds too much, only enough for me to see

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who it was. At the door to the apartment building

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was a large man. It was still snowy out and

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kind of dark, but I could tell he was older,

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like mid forties, but I had never seen him before.

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There were only three other people living in the complex

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at the time, so I was at least familiar with

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who lived here, and he was not one of them.

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I also figured that if he did live here or

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was visiting one of the other people, then they would

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let him in. I walked over to the PA system

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and muted it, then got back to the couch and

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continued watching TV. I really didn't put any more thought

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into it, and even dozed off several times in the

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next hour. Eventually I shut off the TV and went

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to bed. By then it had to be around ten.

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I fell asleep. Just about as soon as I laid down.

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A few hours into the night, my eyes shot open

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to a thud from just outside my room. It was

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extremely loud, but having just woken up to it, I

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didn't know what it was or exactly where it came from.

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My heart was racing as I stared across the room

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at my door, listening for anything else. It was very

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quiet now, almost like nothing even happened. I got out

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of bed and slowly moved toward the door. Then leaned

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my ear against it to listen to the other side.

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It was still quiet, nothing more than the walls creaking

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from the building. I turned the handle and looked out

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into the living room, not seeing anything out of the ordinary.

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The whole place was really dark, though, and for some reason,

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I still felt like I needed to be quiet and

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not make myself known, so I left the lights off.

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As I moved through the living room and looked down

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the front hallway, the door to my apartment was fully open.

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I froze up, staring at the open doorway and feeling

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fear run through my whole body. It almost didn't seem real.

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I took a few steps back, staying quiet, and made

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my way back toward my room, and now on the

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other side of the door, I could see a huge

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dent in the wood right by the knob. Once I

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saw that, I ran in and locked it behind me,

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then called nine one one while hiding in the closet.

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I was sure that whoever it was had to be

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somewhere inside my apartment still, and it would only be

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a matter of time before they get into my room.

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But as I waited for the police, the apartment stayed silent,

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whoever had broken into my apartment was gone. Even the

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police couldn't find anything to help in finding them. What

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they think happened is the intruder tried buzzing all the

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other rooms as well, until one of them was nice

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enough to let them in once he was in the

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main stairwell. It's not really clear why he chose to

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go for my room. Maybe they thought it was empty.

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What's really strange is the dent on my bedroom door,

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which was likely the source of the thud that I'd

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woken up to. But it was just one single hit,

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not looking like a real attempt at breaking the door down,

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but more like something out of frustration before he left.

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I still live in the same apartment and nothing else

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has happened. Who it was and what they wanted is unknown.

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I work for a company that sells bulk out of

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a small warehouse. Sometimes the products we get in are

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pretty expensive, so I was hired as a security guard

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during the late hours of the day and most of

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the night. Being a small warehouse, there's not too much

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need to walk around the place all night. I spend

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most of my time in the office looking at a

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bunch of live camera feeds. During my first three years

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working there, I'd never had a single incident. No people

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ever came by at strange hours, no attempted break ins, nothing.

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It made for a boring job and left me mostly

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unaware every night, even though it was basically my job

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to be aware. On this night, I pulled into the

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small parking lot and parked by the front door, next

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to the car of the only other worker that was

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still there. When I got inside, I let him know

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I was there, and he left shortly after. I checked

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all the doors and made sure the systems were working properly.

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Then I sat back at the office and stared at

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the screens. My attention span died out after half an hour,

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and I pulled my phone out. I still made sure

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to check the cameras every thirty seconds or so, but

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every glance back at the screens showed no differences. Then,

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at just a couple minutes before one am, the system

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made a beep sound. I'd only ever heard it during

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the initial tests i'd do at the beginning of my shifts,

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so this was the first time i'd actually had something

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come up. After a quick look at the alert, it

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was a motion detection of a person walking by the building.

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It took a few tries to find the right camera,

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but on the back side of the building, a man

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was walking right on the edge of where the parking

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lot meets the grass. He had a thick hoodie on

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and was too far to see exactly what he looked like.

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The direction he was walking in wasn't really toward anywhere, though.

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I mean, that's why I'd never gotten alert before, because

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our building is too far out of the way for

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anyone to ever have a reason to walk or drive

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by it. I watched this man go down to the

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end of the parking lot, switching cameras to keep track

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of him, but then he suddenly stopped for just a

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moment and looked toward the building. He turned his head

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back and forth, looking across the whole side, then started

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to walk onto the pavement and toward the side of

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the building. Immediately it went from just odd to possibly

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something I'd have to report on. The man walked along

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the side, looking at every door he came across, but

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not trying anything. He would just kind of look around

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and then move on. Once he got to the corner,

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he went around to the front and then went right

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up to the main door. I watched from the cameras

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as he knocked on the door and heard it echo

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from inside the building. I got up from my chair

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and opened the office door, slowly looking down the hallway

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and seeing the man standing behind the entrance doors. I

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don't think he could see me through the glare on

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the glass, so I stood in the doorway and just

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watched him for a moment. He was trying to look

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through and knocked on the door again. I went back

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into the office and pressed on the speaker button that

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allowed me to talk to them outside. This is a

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private location, you need to leave. I watched on the

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cameras as the man looked up at the speaker. He

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looked like he was going to say something, but then

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he frowned and turned, knocking on the door again. In

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this moment, something just struck me with an intense, eerie feeling.

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It was some sort of gut reaction to this man's behavior.

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I looked closer, noticing he was keeping one hand in

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his pocket the whole time, making me think this could

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be far more dangerous than I'd initially thought. I contacted

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the police through our security line, getting instant connection with

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them and starting to explain the situation. I walked back

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into the hallway and looked down while I talked to

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the dispatcher, But the man suddenly pulled something out of

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his pocket and slammed it against the door. I couldn't

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see what it was, but from the way it hit

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the door and the sound it made, I knew it

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was some kind of metal object that he was trying

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to break the glass with. I rushed back into the office,

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hearing a few more hits as I locked the heavy

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door behind me. Then I quickly looked back at the cameras,

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but by then the man had given up and was

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running away from the building. In only a few seconds,

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he was completely out of sight of any of the cameras.

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It was as I waited for the police to arrive

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that I replayed the footage of when the man hit

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the door, seeing pretty clearly that he was holding a

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small gun and slamming the handle against the glass. We

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got a full report on it, but so far, even

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with some decent footage of the man, he hasn't been identified.

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We also don't know what he was intending to do

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once he got in, though he made it obvious after

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hearing my voice that he did not care that I

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was inside, but from the partial crack formed on the door,

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he was likely just a few hits away from shattering it,

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and then I would have been forced to find out

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the man's true intentions. I work part time at a

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gas station in my city. It's more on the edge

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of the city, near the suburbs, and overall is just

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a very typical gas station. It's not super creepy or

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isolated or anything like that. I only really chose to

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work here, though, because rent prices were going up and

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my other job wasn't cutting it. The only shift I

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could do to work around my other schedule was overnight,

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and gas stations are one of the few places offering

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those shifts. Anyway, this was just ten months ago. It

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was pretty cold out this night, and there was some

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snow on the ground still from a heavy downfall a

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few days ago, but other than that, the night was

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going pretty typical. Being in the suburbs, there's not a

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whole lot of traffic going around the gas station. It's

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mostly just a couple cars passing by every once in

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a while. By twelve, only a handful of cars were

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coming into the gas station every hour. After a bit.

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I got bored enough to leave the front desk and

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walk around the shop, rearranging the items on the shelves

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to look nice, and it was just a couple minutes

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that I heard the door open. I turned around and

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saw a man walking in, right up to the front desk.

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He leaned over the counter and looked both ways as

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if he were looking for someone to help him. Can

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I help you with something? I said? As I made

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my way back to the counter. The man turned and

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looked at me, almost as if I'd scared him, but

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then he hesitated before saying no, I'm good and walking

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out of the store. It was fairly obvious he did

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need help with something, but seeing that made me quickly

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think of the possible robbery he was plotting. I did

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work at a gas station, after all, so it was

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kind of always in the back of my mind. I

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watched the guy go outside and into a car that

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was parked in a very strange spot, kind of near

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the pumps but not actually in the parking section. He

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got in and drove away. I had no way to

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tell if he was actually planning something, but all of

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the signs pointed to it. I figured maybe being behind

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him when he walked in and not at the counter,

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threw him off, and somehow that was enough to deter him.

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Whatever happened, I was confident after a few minutes of

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thinking that this was definitely an attempted robbery, and I

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called the police to report it, just in case they

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were going to try a different gas station. They said

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an officer would come by in just a couple minutes

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to get a report, so I hung up and waited,

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But not even a minute later, that same car pulled

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back into the parking lot. They went right to the

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spot that they had parked before then just waited there

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with the car on. But I was almost positive that

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I could see movement in both of the front seats,

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like there were at least two people in there. I

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quickly locked the front doors and prepared myself for what

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could soon happen as I continued looking out the window,

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though the car just stayed there, nobody getting out, like

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they were watching or waiting for the perfect moment. Luckily, though,

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cops pulled in and immediately recognized the car as I

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described it. They pulled in behind it, blocking them in. Surprisingly,

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there wasn't much of a scene. The officer pretty much

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just walked up and then pulled two men out, one

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of which was the guy that had come in earlier.

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I guess they were trying to play it off like

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they weren't doing anything, but that didn't really work out

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for them. While it seemed to be straightforward what they

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had planned, their car showed a different, more disturbing possibility.

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In the trunk, there was a stash of weapons, along

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with rope, tape and an assortment of similar items. Both

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men are behind bars, but I still feel almost traumatized

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after knowing what they had in the car. If I

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hadn't reported them after the first strange interaction, I would

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have been through far worse than just being robbed, and

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possibly would have never been seen after that night.