Ever had a loaded gun pointed at you?

In My Humble Opinion
81

Yes. Three times.

One time, the first time, was by a police officer. He was off-duty, but identified himself as a police officer, and had his shield on a chain hanging around his neck, so I knew he was a cop.

I was (I think) sixteen at the time. I was, with two friends, checking out an abandoned building in our neighborhood in NYC. The cop apparently lived next door, heard some noise, and ran over to see what was going on. In fairness, back in the seventies, nothing good was likely to be going on in an abandoned house.

Perhaps the drawn gun was unnecessary. But still, entering an abandoned building, unlit (because the electricity was off, of course, and it was after dark), alone, is, or at least was then, extremely risky.

I wasn’t in fear of my life. Perhaps because I was a white, middle-class kid (and not sufficiently mature enough to realize that the other two high school buddies with me weren’t white middle-class kids, and so might have been at more risk), I didn’t feel in danger. We said a bunch of “yes, sir, you’re right, we shouldn’t be here, we’re gone, right now,” and that was the end of it. Maybe the fact that the off-duty officer wasn’t a white dude helped. I don’t know. But, what the heck, it was my own fault. I have no resentments, and I don’t think my friends and I were treated badly by the NYPD, in that instance.

The next time was a few years later. In college, I had a part-time job driving a yellow cab in NYC. The shift was 5:00 PM to 5:00 AM. It was good for me, 'cause I could take the train from the college town into NYC, go to the fleet garage, show my hack license, and lease a cab for twelve hours. And make a bunch of money (mostly off the books, all in cash). Way better than washing dishes in the dining hall. Sometimes I’d do a 24-hour or 48-hour lease, and lease the cab from Friday night through Sunday night. Sleep in the cab, take the train back to university on Monday morning.

So one night I’m driving. A bunch of dudes (four?) get in my cab, tell me they want to go to Avenue B and 2nd Street. Now, back then, there was only one reason to go there. It was a highly organized, completely open, utterly unconcealed heroin market. So I wasn’t happy. I wasn’t so much afraid of these guys, I was thinking how I’d get out of there after I dropped them off. Driving a yellow cab back then was like driving around with a neon sign on your car saying “I have a lot of cash, please rob me.” So I thought I’d hit the off-duty light even before I came to a stop, hit the door lock button as soon as they were out, and get the hell out of there.

No. Apparently these guys didn’t have enough cash to score, and thought they would maximize their efficiency by combining the ride to Avenue B with a robbery. And one of them pulled out his gun, and demanded all the cash I had. Since he was sitting right behind me, with a gun held to my head, I gave it to him. My whole night’s money. And I still had to pay for the gas and the lease. The fleet owner wasn’t going to give a rat’s ass that I got robbed, he would still want his money. And if you want to know what kind of people own taxi fleets in NYC, keep in mind that Michael Cohen (yes, that Michael Cohen) owned 32 medallions. Whatever, the junkie piece of shit didn’t shoot me, I was just glad to get out of there.

The next time was just a year or two later. I’d just graduated from university, and I’d gotten an apartment in the very same neighborhood. OK, obviously I’m an idiot, but it was dirt cheap back then. You weren’t going to get heat, or hot water, and everything leaked, and so on, but $400/month in NYC? Hey, I’ll deal with the roaches.

And another junkie, in my own apartment building lobby, pulled a gun and robbed me.

That bugged me, because we’d always had sort of a deal with the junkies. You can shoot up here, you can nod out, you can sleep, but leave us alone and we’ll leave you alone. This robbery was a treaty violation. After that, some other residents and I threw the junkies out.

82

In fairness, that’s probably a pretty memorable experience. No surprise that he/she hasn’t forgotten it in six years.

83

Granted. But it was the first post after 6 years, a zombie revived to repost the same story. On the other hand, it was probably revived by a spammer who’s since been sent to the cornfield.

84

If I don’t constantly retell it, how can the story ever achieve folklore status?

85

Yes. It was a hostage situation, and I took the place of two little girls being threatened by their father. 45 cal service pistol. It had a really big bore.

Fortunately the situation was defused, and nobody was physically hurt. I sometimes wonder about those girls.

86

When I was in U.S.A.F. basic training, we took turns as door guards, where we stood by one of the entrances to guard the barracks from evil doers and rabid raccoons. Of course, we would be tested by assigned non-com officers demanding that we let them in. They would threaten us, attempt to befriend us, try to bribe us etc. and usually we saw through the crap and stood our ground. I was on guard duty one night when a staff sergeant came up to the door and demanded to be let in…and apparently this staff sergeant has been drinking before setting out on his mission, because after yelling at me to let him in, he pulled a handgun and pointed it at me. Of course I stood my ground and refused to open the door but, truth to tell, I don’t think I could have moved a muscle even if I wanted to. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

87

You know, it’s funny. I scrolled back through the thread, and I too posted my gun encounters six years ago.

Obviously these experiences are extremely memorable.

88

I lived for a few years on Ave. B between 2nd and 3rd. You are not wrong.

89

Two AR-15s. My store got held up. I happened to be in the backroom but could see it happening. I called 911 by the time I got off the phone with them (less then 30 seconds) the guy was gone. I walked out to the store and could see two cops with their AR-15s pointed at the front door. At this point they didn’t have any details and didn’t know that the guy had already left. I walked out with my hands up. Both these cops know me by name, I see them on a nearly daily basis, but I didn’t want to find out if they’d recognize me walking out of the scene of an armed robbery at night, hence the arms up. I made eye contact with them, waved them in and they put their guns away.

I got a bit of a chuckle when I thought about the fact that everyone driving past the store (on a somewhat busy road) saw all the police lights, cops with rifles and me walking towards them with my hands in the air. I’m guessing I didn’t look like the good guy in that situation. I didn’t realize it looked that way until one of my daughter’s teachers said she was driving by and asked what was going on.

90

OK, well, maybe there were two reasons to go there. To buy heroin, or to hang out with panache45. :smile:

91

None that I know of at visible point-range. But yes, in sensitive parts of the world where any stranger is in sights, like Syria, Cyprus or Mozambique. Recently, on a Ukrainian ship sailing near Russian waters, buzzed low by (presumably) armed Russian aircraft.

But I know the feeling. At 5, a neighboring big kid marched me around a field with his finger in my back — he said it was a gum. I remembered the taste in my mouth later on when I licked the bare handlebar on my trike. There was an aromatic hydrocarbon smell, too. So, gun or no gun, I know that iron taste in my mouth, and the smell of my own fear.

92

Travelling in Turkey in a Kombi van. We were looking for a camping ground and knew we were very close to it. We saw a big place with a high fence and a sweeping entrance, with a traffic barrier, which is what a lot of camping grounds in Turkey look like.

I swung the van in and was met with angry yelling and realised there were bunkers with armed soldiers in them on either side of the entrance, and they were keeping machine guns trained on us.

Turns out there was an army base next to the camping ground.

93

Your story reminds me of the (possibly apocryphal) incident where a drunk Marine couldn’t get an alcohol-breathalyzer-equipped vehicle going, so he grabbed a raccoon and - in the words of the investigative report - “utilized the raccoon to unlock the breathalyzer” - and got the car going. He was arrested by MPs after driving the car into a swimming pool.

94

I was sitting in a cafe in Germany a couple years ago when a guy ran up and stuck a pistol in the face of the guy sitting next to me. As soon as I saw the gun come out I said “Nope”, got up, and ran. The pistol was fired as I ran away. I don’t know for certain if he was shooting at me (but I assume so) and was in no mood to stick around and find out.

95

Uniformed police officers - at least 4, as many as six. I didn’t get an exact count. Felony traffic stop that was (real truth) a clerical error. My plate number was somehow switched in the system with another plate from the same make, model, year, and color.

At least 4 marked cars, multiple officers, guns drawn standing behind their open doors. One on the speaker - throw your keys out the window, exit the vehicle, hands up, walk backward towards us, etc. Just like the movies.

Cuffed and stuffed for not even 5 whole minutes. Checked my ID and VIN. The guy they wanted not at close to my same physical description. Apologies all around. Here’s a card with Captain Whatshisname’s number. Call him to make sure your plates are getting sorted out (they took care of everything for me, but recommended I follow up to make sure so I don’t get stopped again).

Nice guys all around. Good thing I’m white or things could have gone very differently.

96

Back when Live PD was on, I saw a similar thing happen. Felony stop, multiple cops, guns drawn, got the guy out of the car and cuffed. A few minutes later everything was sorted out. They thanked the guy for being so calm the entire time and he said that due to a similar mix up as yours, it was like the 4th times he’s been through this and he’s been trying to get it cleared up.
One of the cops said that he absolutely did not recommend [wink wink] that the guy just takes the plates off his car. The cop went on to say that without the plates he’s going to get pulled over a lot more often, but at least he won’t get the felony treatment every time it happens.

97

When I was in HS a friend who had just graduated had a party. He had never turned in any of his textbooks so very very late at night (probably like 300A), after all the females had left, the few of us remaining threw his books into a large terra cotta pot, dumped gasoline on it and lit them on fire. In case you’re not aware of this, textbooks don’t burn very well, even with gasoline, so we kept pouring more on.

Eventually we had the brilliant idea to just dump the rest of the gasoline on it, so our tallest, drunkest friend lifts the jerry can up over his head and dumps it on the fire. HUGE fireball, which of course causes my friend to throw the jerry can down on the ground, leaving a spray of burning gasoline all over the backyard, up and over the wood fence, and into the neighbor’s yard, which are now ALL on fire.

Two of us start stomping out the fires on our side of the fence, and two others go to run around the fence to get the fires on the neighbor’s side, but as they are running out the gate we all hear “FREEZE GET YOUR HANDS UP AND GET DOWN ON THE GROUND! NOW!” Turns out our fireball was visible from quite a ways away and this cop had seen it from the major road about 1/4 mile away, over the other houses and trees and stuff. He was standing there with his gun pointed at us, backed up my two friends back into the yard and then asked us what the hell we were doing.

Best part of that story? After someone went inside to wake up my friend’s mother, she came down, talked to the cop and he let us all off with a warning. Then she came into the basement where we were all sitting sheepishly, looks at us, then says “Guys, next time-- use less lighter fluid.” And that was it. She wasn’t even mad. I guess she was completely used to our idiocy by then.