Thugs
Several weeks ago I had written about playing pick-up basketball back in the 1960’s on the west side of Dayton in a pretty rough neighborhood. Rereading that blogpost brought to mind another incident while I was living in that end of town. It was a Friday after work one summer during my college years when the phone rang at our apartment that I shared with three other college friends. We were planning a night out on the town to start the weekend; however, one of our roommates had car problems at his place of work, a General Motors plant also on the west side of Dayton.
His car had a starter that was acting up and it finally gave up the ghost in the parking lot. He asked us to go to the auto parts store to pick up a refurbished starter before they closed, then head over to help him install it. I recall having just been paid, but hadn’t had time to cash my check. So it was left on my bedroom dresser. My two other roommates were in the same situation, but between us we scratched up enough cash to buy a starter, as there were no credit cards back in those days, especially for college students.This is important as it plays into the events to follow.
We picked up the rebuilt starter, got to the parking lot and began removing the defective device. The car's owner and I were under the car unbolting the unit, while the two other roommates were on top of the engine unhooking the electrical lines to the starter and aiming a flashlight as it was now getting dark outside.
While the repairs were underway, three thugs approached the car to rob us and one had a gun! When they saw our legs sticking out from under the car, they threatened at us to slowly get out from under the car. This gave my roommate under the car with me some time to take the cash out of his wallet and stuff the money in a crevice near where the starter was mounted. I did not catch on as quickly, so when we slid out from under the car and stood up, one of the thugs said, “Whoa, put a gun in that big dude's back right now” when he saw I was 6’5”. To this day, I can still sense the exact spot where the gun barrel pushed hard into the small of my back. I was just hoping none of my roommates would do something stupid to excite the trigger man.
Fortunately they did not, so the thugs had us empty our pockets, grabbed our billfolds and ran off. Likely they would have stolen the car had the starter been working. Luckily, the thugs didn’t realize my unlocked car that we had arrived in was parked nearby. Keys were still in it and not in my pocket, which was also fortuitous.
We notified the plant guards, who called the Dayton Police to take our statements and file a police report. They indicated it was unlikely our billfolds would be recovered. Since none of us had time to cash our paychecks before the call came in, coupled with the fact that we had pooled our money to pay for the starter, we only lost a dollar between us. And thanks to his quick thinking, the car owner avoided losing about $50 still stuffed under the engine, so we retrieved his cash, put in the starter and headed to our favorite “watering hole" where they knew us as our drivers licenses had also been stolen. We spent that crumpled and greasy cash on some much needed refreshments, while thanking our lucky stars for surviving the ordeal with no losses (except the dollar!).
The next day, the local newspapers, TV and radio stations all picked up the story from the police report, no doubt because they were enamored with the fact that the thugs had only gotten away with $1 from the group of 4 college students!
There were two other times in my life when thugs robbed us; once in 1975 at our first home just weeks after my wife and I had moved in. The robbers stole our stereo system and a beautiful Zeiss Ikon 35mm camera that my father-in-law had loaned me for a trip we were planning. He had purchased the camera in Germany while in the service after WWII. Police were called, but the items were never recovered. We suspected our paperboy had been somehow involved, because before that incident, he was very friendly and personable, likely staking us out, but after the robbery, he barely ever spoke to us again.
The other time was in our hotel while visiting California in about 1985. Our young son was traveling with us and my wife was tired from jet lag so she took a nap in the afternoon while my son and I saw a movie at a local theater. While we were gone, a thug tried to break into the room, but when my wife called out, the burglar fortunately took off immediately. However, that night, while we were all sleeping, the brazen thug returned and stole an overnight bag holding our return airline tickets plus other valuables. Again we reported the matter to the local Police and the hotel management, but never did find out if the perp was apprehended. And our room charges were not refunded in light of our loss.
These incidents have sensitized us to the risk of thugs invading our personal space. Speaking of that, the comedian in the above video really hits the nail on the head how times have changed:
Following this trend, our security system was recently upgraded in our home to include video cameras at strategic points that can be viewed on-line and also record the previous several days should the need arise to go back and view the monitors. No problems to report so far, but it does give us an enhanced sense of security. The front door bell camera also comes in handy when Amazon deliveries arrive, or if another thug were to be following the delivery van to steal the dropped off packages. Or as shown above, so my wife can make sure I’m watering the ferns by our front door!
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