Until it Happens to You

   A few years ago pharmacies along the street where my store is located were being robbed. Every Friday or Saturday the thieves would hit another store. Three pharmacies had been hit already and everyone was on high alert. We were given a radio to use. The security cameras were aimed at the pharmacy. Store security and loss prevention workers were making more rounds past the pharmacy. The city police had dispatched two officers to keep guard.
  I had to work that Saturday and I was scared. I'd never been robbed before. I've dealt with forgers and others who had gained medications fraudulently. I had never dealt with a robbery. How would I handle it? We had been given protocols time and again. I knew what I was supposed to do. Don't fight. Give the robber what he/she wants. Try and remember faces and other things that could help authorities identify the robber. Call the police as soon as it is over. Would I remember to do this?
  C, unwilling to trust my safety to strangers, was also in the store patrolling as well. He stopped by the pharmacy to talk to me so I wouldn't be so nervous.  I imagined violence and guns or knives being waved around. I thought of my colleagues in the other stores. Which one of us would be next?
  My store was not robbed that night. The robbers instead chose to rob the busiest store on the street a week later. They were slowed down enough for police to get there. The police were able to get to the pharmacy and arrest the robbers.
  We all breathed a sigh of relief.
   Once in awhile a pharmacy in the Twin Cities area is robbed. I didn't pay too much attention. These things happen. Most store policies instruct pharmacy staff to cooperate. The cost of what would be taken is not as much as the cost of someone losing their life. I think this makes burglars feel pretty safe as they know they will not have to kill or harm anyone and they can get what they want.
  I didn't ponder what I would do after that one night a few years back. Every so often we would have to  read and sign off on the robbery protocol. It was an academic question. It probably wouldn't happen here.
  Last Monday I was working at my usual terminal when a man dressed in baggy dark clothes vaulted over the consultation window. He came up to me and I was annoyed. "What are you doing here?!" I asked. I picked up the phone to call someone to get him out. He told me to put down the phone and asked where the narcotics were kept. Then it hit me. We were being robbed.
  I walked over to the narcotic cabinet as my tech tried to call the front desk. He told her to put down the phone and to stand where he could see her. I opened the cabinet with my key and pointed to what he wanted. With one hand he swept the drugs into a pillowcase that he had. He swiped medication from the shelf below into his bag as well.
  He wanted to know if we had a cough syrup popular with those who abuse drugs. For a minute I toyed with saying we didn't stock it, but I'm not a good liar. I told him it was around the corner and vaguely waved to where it was. I wasn't going to help him any more than I needed. He found the cough syrup, checked the bottles and put them both in his bag. Then he left vaulting over the counter.
  It was over. My tech and I had survived it. I wanted to crumple up and cry, but there were several customers who needed prescriptions filled. I didn't have the option of having a nervous breakdown. I called the police.
  They came and asked for descriptions and what happened. I did my best, but I'm not good at facial recognition on a good day. It had all gone so fast. I didn't pay attention to skin colour, if he wore gloves or what kind of shoes he had on. In between answering questions I filled prescriptions. I wondered if any of my waiting customers had seen what happened.
  I was worried about my tech. She had a red flush starting on her chest that was working it's way up toward her face. She seemed all right, but I don't know her well enough to know if she was just showing a brave front. We took care of all our customers. The police went about looking at things and taking information.
  Finally it was time to close. Everyone who was notified had been notified. C had come to escort me to my car and drive home with me. He made me a large hot chocolate once we were home.
  Since then I've been hugged and people keep asking me how I am. I tell them I'm fine and that when one is in retail it's only a matter of time before you get robbed. I tell them that things happened too fast for me to be scared, which was true. The people I've told have expressed worry about me. I have counseling information from my employer and the police.
  I almost wonder if I'm taking this too calmly. I expected to be upset and paranoid. I thought I would be jumpy and unable to sleep. I thought I would be scared. I'm not. The only problem I really have is that I don't feel completely safe anywhere except at home. It's not a new feeling. I've felt unsafe before. I know how to handle it.
  I've also been reassured that I acted correctly during the robbery. I knew that I had. I wasn't worried about that. There is a part of me that wished I had something heavy in my hand that I could have hit him with as he was crouched on the floor grabbing the drugs. My Louisville Slugger baseball bat would have been handy.
   A few years ago I wondered what I would do if the pharmacy was robbed on my shift. I think we all wonder how we would react in moments of stress. We think we know. We may ponder and play out various scenarios in our minds. There's really no way to know until it happens to you.