What Would You Do?



Imagine yourself sitting at your favorite coffee shop sipping on your latte', chai, whatever; your laptop's open as you update your facebook account or ramp up for your next business meeting, when all of a sudden some goon walks in wearing a long trench coat. As you notice that something is just wrong with this picture, he whips out a rifle and begins to hold up the place. Yea, I know what you are thinking, "this sounds like some cheezy movie...how cliche'!" Well, this really happened at a local Grand Rapids coffee shop called The Bitter End. It's a place that that I often go because it's less than a mile from my condo.

I'm not a stranger to violence, I've been around the block my fair share, but I haven't been in a situation where there was some gun toting thug in the middle of a place where there were numerous people that I could put in jepordy if I were to decide to take action and things went South.

So here is my question to all of you. What would you do? Check out the video and see what one young guy did and then think what you would do if you were in the same position. Please share your comments on the blog so everyone can benefit from your insight.

See the entire episode here: http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/local/grand_rapids/Law-student-turns-hero-during-robbery

~Craig

Thanks Brodey for bringing this to my attention!

Comments

  1. Tony NotarianniMarch 22, 2010 at 7:47 AM

    It is impossible to tell if the guy did the right thing or not from an outcome perspective. What if he didn't take the opportunity but it turned out the gun was loaded and the guy also took a hostage with him who was later assaulted and murdered?
    Some gambles are thrust upon us, we have no idea of the outcome. The important thing is that he had the courage and ability to do what he felt he needed to do at the time. If everyone else had reacted too, they could have caught the guy and he wouldn't still be out there.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nathan K.May 6, 2010 at 6:39 PM

    The guy who disarmed the robber made a split-second decision based on his "gut", and it turned out OK. The problem, IMO, is that he made that decision for EVERYONE, and it could have turned out very bad for a bystander (or several). I think I would've probably let him have my money or possessions (which can be replaced) until/unless the perp took it to the next level (i.e. herding people into a back room, ordering people to get on their knees, etc...) AFTER getting what he initially demanded. That said, I wasn't there, and these decisions are made based upon gut instincts, in a fraction of a second. Who knows? I might have done the same thing had I been there. I'm just glad it turned out well!

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