Friday night about 11:30 PM I was home at my little condo and the helicopter with the search light was flying overhead for over an hour. Sweeping the area and I knew something was going on.wrong. I live a few blocks from a convenience store. A few blocks further east is the tattoo shop where I've worked for the past 15 years. Ten or so years ago 2 predators killed three women during a robbery in a restaurant directly across the street from where I work. They were caught when one of the two, proud of himself, bragged to a friend who turned him in.

Friday night two clerks who worked in the convenience store were murdered in a robbery. Here is the report in the local paper along with the video from the security camera. I've stood in front of that counter paying for gasoline or whatever more times than I can count. So I went to work on Saturday wondering if I knew the two men who had been killed. I keep a 357 magnum on my person when I am at work since it is largely a cash business. Saturday was a slow day and a slower night.

I was at the shop until closing at 11PM and wondered if, with an empty parking lot, thieves would think it was an easy score. Just pull in and shoot me and my co-worker and take the cash. When I was a kid, maybe 10 or 12 years old, I remember thinking how glad I was that I didn't live in a violent society such as what I saw depicted in movies about the wild western frontier and later the gangsters of the 20s and 30s. Little did I know.

I normally never carry a gun when I'm not at work. Now I will probably slip it in my pocket as I did this morning when I took the garbage out. In this world today you can't be too careful.