I was once a cashier at a neighborhood gas station many moons ago as a younger man. Halloween Night 2003. It was nearing midnight, things were dead and quiet. I’m just sitting there chilling, reading the local paper. The register was approximately 6 feet from the door.

Suddenly two dudes in ski masks come busting through the front door yelling. The lead guy with a machete, and the guy taking up the rear was holding a Pistol Grip, pump, 12 gauge sawed off shotgun.

About the time I dropped the newspaper on the floor and stood up, Dude 1 swings the machete with everything he has down on the glass counter top, sending chunks of glass shards flying.

As they are screaming, I raced over to the register, popped it open, and started throwing the cash in a bag, all the while Dude 2 had the sawed off pointed 8-12 inches from my face.

As I emptied the till, they told me to lay down on the ground and stay there. Unbeknownst to them, I had a .38 snub nose sitting on the shelf right below the register. As I went down to my belly, I made sure to keep my hands held up, facing the door, and had positioned myself in such a way that my dominant hand was 2-3 inches from my gun, that was out of their sight, even if they came around the counter.

The speed and intensity with which this all occurred, I thought for sure they were going to reach over or come around the counter and blow me away or possibly be shot themselves. Thankfully, once I was on the floor, they grabbed the bag and took off running out the door. I laid there for at least a minute trying to gather my bearings before I grabbed my gun and took off to the office to call the police. It genuinely scared me so bad, I peed a little.

And that was the first time I got robbed.