Sorry to resurrect this rather sombre thread, but I felt that this was the best place for this story. My younger brother works in Blockbuster and last week, after setting the alarm, he and his coworkers where leaving to go home when 3 guys wearing masks attacked them and dragged them back into the store. One of the guys was bashed over the head with some kind of club or truncheon while my bro and the other guy were pinned to the ground with large kitchen knives at their throats. The guys told them to take them to the safe, and to not even think about sounding an alarm, so my bro told them that in about 20 seconds the alarm which they had just set before leaving would be going off and suggested they let him disarm it. With the alarm disarmed, they took my brother (the only member of staff present who knows the combination to the safe) upstairs and held the knife to his stomach while he opened the safe. They then stole £5000 and left. Luckily, noone was seriously injured, but my brother is pretty shook up. I keep telling him he done the right thing, and acted calmly and cooly by taking control of the situation, volunteering his knowledge of the safe combination, warning the burglars of the alarm, etc (imagine what could have happened if the alarm had started going off and the thieves had panicked), but he still feels like a chump and is basically doubting himself and mankind as a whole. These pricks come in and take in 5 minutes what it takes him 5 or 6 months to earn, with no concern for the people they have to walk over to get it. It makes me sick.

P.S
A few days after, I remembered some of the discussions some of us have had in the politics thread, and I asked my brother if he thinks things would have panned out differently if there had been a shotgun under the counter. He said no because they rushed him at the door and he wouldn't be able to get to the gun in time. But he then said that maybe if he personally had been armed, he could have seen them off, or maybe if we lived in a country where it's possible the guy you are attacking has a gun, the thieves might not have chanced it, or if it was common knowledge that every Blockbuster store had a gun and it's staff were trained to use it. I don't want to get into the gun debate here, and we've already been through it to the point of exhaustion, but I just thought I would mention it here.

P.P.S Rik, if you want this post removed, let me know.