It had been an extremely long day for me. I am the owner of a store in Kansas City. I am a white male and my store was in a mostly minority neighborhood so it seemed like I had been singled out for problems in the neighborhood. It is not a large store, rather what would be called by some a "mom and pop" operation. Over the years it has been extremely difficult to make ends meet, with the high price of rent, taxes and insurance. I have been burglarized several times in the last few years and although my insurance covered my expenses for the merchandise stolen, it did not cover the business lost waiting for the merchandise to be replaced.
It was about an hour after sunset, approximately 8 p.m. and I was just finishing up with my duties, getting ready to go home. I had long since closed the store and I had locked everything up and turned the lights out. I was in the back room and had just finished my inventory and I was just getting ready to leave when I heard a sound coming from the front of the store.
"What the hell was that?" I asked myself. "Not another fucking burglary." I had been through way too many of them and I was getting tired of dealing with all that shit. I am not a believer in handguns, although I did keep one for life and death situations. So, since I did not particularly believe in guns, I looked around the room for my "helper". My helper is a 32-inch aluminum baseball bat that I kept with me pretty much all the time I was there. I spied it in the corner and I quietly walked over to it and picked it up. I quietly walked over to the door and I pushed it open a little. Inside the room I could see two shadows walking around and looking my shelves. I could not make out any details of the two.
All I could tell was that one was tall and one was a little on the short side. I heard them whisper something to each other but could not make out what it was. I sized up the situation and decided that I would take out the biggest one first. I slowly made my way through the door and stood at the end of the aisle they were walking down. The tall one was walking behind the shorter one so I stood back a ways, and decided to wait till I could get a good shot at him. I know it was just a minute or so but it seemed like it took hours for them to get within striking distance. I was nervous because I didn't know how the other one would react or if they had a gun or not.
I crouched in the corner and waited till the first burglar went past me. I could hear the breathing of the two in the silence of the store. I heard their footsteps as they walked towards me. I knew that their adrenaline must be flowing, as was mine from the excitement, theirs from the robbery and mine from the moment at hand. As the second one walked past me, I pulled back the ball bat and got ready. I moved the bat forward and then I felt it stop and heard a "thud" and I saw the tall one go down. As soon as the first burglar realized that something had happened I heard a scream and after a moment's hesitation they made way for the door. I took off and lunged forward and caught the intruder before the end of the aisle was reached.
I heard the other one moan and groan from the pain inflicted on him from my helper. The burglar on the floor put up a struggle but because I was so much bigger and stronger I soon had the little rascal subdued. I could not tell anything about this person but I was sure that it was one of the neighborhood locals. As soon as the struggle was over, I said "Now get up quietly when I tell you to and if you make any sudden moves you will end up on the floor like your friend over there. Do you understand?"
The intruder nodded and I got up. I put the ball bat against the person on the floor and I held it there to let them know that I meant business. I watched carefully as the smaller of the two got up off the concrete floor. I took the intruder with me as I turned on the light. The fluorescent lights hummed as they warmed up and the lights burned brightly.
"Another punk kid," I said out loud as I looked at the burglar standing there in the baggy pants, shirt, sloppy jean jacket and baseball cap turned the wrong way. A ski mask had been pulled over their head in hopes of hiding their identities. "What the fuck is wrong with you kids today? Why don't you go out and get a job like everybody else?" I asked. I was tired of watching the crap going on in the neighborhood when I couldn't even hire any help for my store. I looked over at the kid on the floor and he was still moaning from the hit with the bat.
"Get up kid," I said motioning to him. I motioned for them to go to the back room. The short one pushed the door open and the taller one hobbled in as quickly as he could.
We walked into the storeroom and I switched the light on. I handed the shorter one a piece of rope. "Tie him up," I said. I motioned to the tall one to come toward me. I pushed him up against a pole and he moaned as I pulled his arms around it. "Now time him up or you'll get a little of what he got." The tall man was soon tied and I set the bat down and walked toward the other burglar. I noticed a frightened reaction as I reached forward. "Don't worry, if you do as I say, I won't hurt you." I reached and pulled the cap off and then the ski mask and it was then that I realized that the short burglar was not a man, but a young woman.
"Well, what do we have here. It's a girl," I said as I looked at the dark features of the woman's face. She was an attractive Hispanic woman with mocha colored skin and curly black hair with a blonde highlight on the ends and if you looked past the shame she had the most gorgeous brown eyes. "You got any I.D.?" I asked. She looked around nervously, not sure what to do and then nodded her head.
"I-i-it's in my shirt pocket," she said. "Can I take my jacket off mister, it's hot in here?" I nodded, giving her that look that told her not to try any funny stuff. She took her jacket off and then pulled her sweatshirt off and as she did I noticed her shapely young breasts pressing against her tee shirt. She started to reach into her pocket and I put my hand on hers. "I'll get it little girl," I said as I reached into her pocket. I found the I.D. but as I found it, I couldn't help but notice the firmness of her left breast as my hand touched it. I opened the wallet and found her driver's license. I looked at the name. It looked familiar.
"Let me see Juanita, Juanita," I said several times as I read her name. "Hey, I know you, you are the little girl that used to come in here for candy. You used to come in here with your mother. You're the one they used to call Jonnie. Why did you come in here to rob me?"
Juanita hung her head in shame. She couldn't look me in the eye as I asked her that question. "I'm going to only ask you one more time young lady!! Why did you come in here to rob me?"
Juanita stammered, "My father left my mom a while back and she has 2 little kids to feed. I needed money to get them food," she said as tears ran down her pretty little face.
"Damn girl," I said as I stared at her. "Why didn't you just come in and ask for a job? I would have put you to work in a minute."
"It's because I have to take care of the children while my mom works. If I went to work, we would have to hire a baby sitter and that would cost more than I make. Please mister, let me go."
