I need to get this off my chest and this feels like the right place.
I worked 3rd shift at a hotel when I was 18, the summer following my high school graduation in 2005.
I got robbed by someone armed with a knife and gun. At points of the robbery he held the gun to my head. At one point he had the knife to my throat my neck was cut from the pressure of him pushing it in to my skin. He looked surprised when he saw the blood – I don’t think he meant to do that. He didn’t put it to my throat after that.
After the man emptied the cash from the register, even dumping the change in his pockets, and finally accepted that he couldn’t get into the safe, he fled. I locked myself in a vacant room. I called my dad, the police, and my manager in that order.
My boss ignored the call. I left him a brief message and eventually he called back. He was mad that I called him in the middle of the night. He was clearly woken up and inconvenienced. He asked me how much money the man stole and asked if I called the police. Then he hung up. I felt so bad after that phone call because he said I could have done more to prevent that much money being stolen (it was less than $200). When the cops arrived, I showed them the security cameras and said they could probably see his face on the recording – the robber did not cover his face. The cop said, “follow this wire for the camera.” It was run along the bottom of the desk and cut. The cop filled me in that these are dummy cameras and that the robber likely knew this. He said this hotel is robbed all the time, there was even a murder in the parking lot the December prior. The cop was so angry that the hotel manager still had not properly installed a security camera. The man was never caught and during the robbery he told me he knew my full name (he did) and where I lived. I lived in absolute terror for so long.
In the days after, my boss offered me a “paid weekend off” at any hotel he owned. A hotel. The last place I felt safe and the last place I wanted to be. Oh, and I was responsible for my own transportation and meals while away. My dad told him to basically fuck off… I wouldn’t be going away anytime soon.
He never put me back on the schedule, effectively firing me. I sued the hotel but only was awarded 5k. It did help pay for some of my college loans (I took college courses before graduating high school and was enrolled in summer courses at the time of the robbery.)
Anyway. It fucked up my life and started me down the road of random intense anxiety attacks. I was diagnosed with PTSD in therapy following the robbery.
That was 2005. The summer following my high school graduation. No one has any idea or even cares how much this fucked with me. I worked retail (Walmart bc it felt safe) and quit college after finishing the summer courses I was taking because my community college was two blocks from where I was robbed and I felt so scared on campus.
I learned early on that work/mgmt usually doesn’t give a shit about you.
I did finally fishing college in 2020, so there’s that.
Anyway, thanks if you made it this far.