Have you ever had random stories or events resonate and fit together unexpectedly? Like the credit card applications that came in separately from a stripper, a bouncer and a drunk. All are working and living in the same area. This is another one of those things. I'm aware this could have a catchier title, but I'm paranoid that this is going to get censored. You'll see why soon enough.
While I was a student in California, I had a friendly chat with a security guard off campus watching over a small, neglected warehouse, and he was bored. He told me about the time he tried to play hero during an armed robbery. He thought that he could escape by making a run for it when the gunman wasn't expecting it and getting help. Lucky for him, the 357 Magnum misfired. The bullet hit him in the butt cheek and burrowed deep into the flesh of his gluteus maximus. He said it felt like "all the bees in the world" stung him on that spot. He went down - like he'd been shot and didn't get up again until the paramedics attended to him when it was all over. He recommends against anyone following his example.
Years later, I was asked to start giving a new employee a ride back and forth to work each day. I was compensated for gas, and we got along great. He had just returned to Canada, having lived most of his life in the United States. He had been deported back to his country after serving a full sentence for armed robbery. He and a group of buddies knocked off a credit union for $85,000 and got caught. He had been the gunman, and to scare the security guard into cooperating, he put, you guessed it, a 357 Magnum round into the ceiling. He told the man who had just peed himself, "Look, it's not your money".
By the time I met with him, he was a grandpa and just wanted to live a quiet life and see his grandchildren from time to time. Evidently, they were living in Canada because he was barred from returning to the USA. He never missed paying for gas and was a good worker in every way. He even handled a disciplinary problem for me in a way that only he could. That's another story that will end up posted here someday. If people like this story, it'll be sooner rather than later.
The last chapter of our relationship was his applying for a job at the new, up-and-coming Walmart warehouse. The company we were working for didn't pay very well and didn't offer very good hours, so I don't blame him one bit. I left there myself not long after him. The funny part of his getting that job was that he passed a criminal background check because he has no criminal record in Canada.
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