How can anyone be so sick to do something like that to another person? I just don't understand...

1. When four gunmen walked into our theater, robbed us at gunpoint, and tied us all up in the auditorium, I was able to get free and called the police. When the police arrived (complete with their macho glue-on mustaches), they took us all to the police station, put us in the “confession box” where they questioned us like the Nazi’s would in WW II.

After they told us we were free to go, the police department didn’t even offer us the common courtesy to take us back to the theater. We either had to walk back or call someone to take us back. It was “our choice” what we wanted to do.

Three weeks later, I went down to the Gestapo Department and asked if they ever caught the guys. I was told that it was none of my business, and they have to protect the rights of those who held us at gunpoint.

I told them, “Their rights? What about MY rights? I was the one who was looking down the bore of a .357!”

I was promptly told to leave, which is what I did.

2. Several years later, we had some suspected drug dealing happening in our parking lot.

I called the police and they told me to send someone out and get the license plate number of the suspected cars! I blew my top and told the cop on the phone, “If you think I am going to send one of my kids out there to get a license plate number, you are out of your mind! That’s what you guys are paid to do!”

They never responded. The next day, I had a meeting with the Chief of Police, and the Mayor of the town, where I really told them what I thought. From that point on, they would not even speak to me when I saw them. They looked the other way as though I didn’t exist. I guess I got my point across.

3. Yesterday, I read an article in the news about a business owner of a music store that caught a thief red-handed stealing 11 Pink Floyd CD’s. The owner chased after him, fired three warning shots, and held the thief at gunpoint. The policeman came up, drew his pistol, and told the owner to drop the gun, and the thief took off running and GOT AWAY! The owner was promptly arrested and thrown in jail and held there for eight hours.

I sent an Email to that cop. I said, “Good Job, Sergeant! Now you know why the thieves laugh at you and make a mockery out of the Judicial System!”

The cop never replied, and probably never will.

When the manager got there, he went up to the second floor office, like normal, and heard the bumping around. He immediately went up the 'trap door' we have in the roof and started chasing these guys. They got down the ladder and got in the truck. He called down to us bigger guys and said, "Go out back, look for a truck, and get the license plate number!!"

We went out there but they were gone. What happened???

They stole ALL of our brass/copper piping for the AC/Heat off of the roof. To sell for scrap evidently. It took a couple days to get AC back. I'm sure it was replaced with aluminum or some crud metal.

It sounds like you were dealing with a very unprofessional department..

They are not only unprofessional, they are not very intelligent. I just read in today's paper that one of those cops got popped for DWI. It was his second one in three months. The BCA was .20 or a little above it this time. Our legal limit is .08.

It apparently was kept very quiet. No action was taken on the first one, because the case was not "flagged" in the prosecuting attorney's office, and was located in the "routine" basket.

I find this very interesting, along with thousands of the residents of this city. This city has a population of 26,232.

Excuse me. My “rant” dash light is flashing.

After getting jumped the second time in front of my theater, I got my permit to carry a concealed weapon (CWP). Shortly after that, I became an assistant instructor. I couldn’t become an instructor because I refused to join the NRA (we’re not going there). I have been robbed at gun-point and I have been shot at (not in theaters) and I’ve done a lot of work with victims wanting to arm themselves. The emotional carnage from a robbery (or assault) is unknowable.

Jerry’s post on this thread should be printed up and hung in every theater and be required reading. Very good and to the point.

If one of my students had fired three warning shots after a thief (granted, they were Pink Floyd CDs), I would have made damn sure s/he never had a CWP in my county again, then I would have taken him out back and kicked his ass up around his ears. When you fire warning shots, where do you think they go? There’s an old George Carlin joke about “twenty-one people killed today during a twenty-one gun salute.” What goes up, must come down.

There is no material possession worth a human life, and the only reason you use a gun is to protect yourself or others from immediate mortal harm. Period. If you think you need to kill another human to protect your gross, get into another line of work.

Jerry Chase’s post gives many ways to protect yourself that are much more effective than arming yourself. If you want a gun in your theater (and you aren’t willing to get the training), have it attached to a cop.

When I went through my advanced training, I did an exorcise where I was blindfolded and lead onto the range. When everyone was behind cover, I uncovered my eyes, then had five seconds to pick the bad-guy out of a forest of silhouettes and shoot him. The bad guy was paper, the civilians were plastic for a total of about 20 targets. When the whistle blew, I uncovered, found the bad-guy, unloaded my magazine. The whistle blew, I holstered my weapon and admired the nice tight grouping in the center of mass in the bad-guy. Then the instructor came out and held up the civilian target behind the bad-guy. I felt like shit. It’s grouping was very tight, also. Last I heard, that civilian target is still on the wall in the CWP classroom. I know I’ll never forget it.

If you are robbed and the robber then leaves (either with or without the money), you are done with the incident and you should count yourself lucky to be alive and un-injured.

The law allows you to defend yourself only. Pursuit of the suspect would be dangerous and foolish (not to mention unlawful).

Give the security tapes to the cops and run your movies. No "warning shots".

Concession receipts are smaller but since there are usually people around it would be feasible to occasionally carry a drop from the concession to the box office.

quote:

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HUNTSVILLE, Ala., May 10 - The Hollywood 18 Theater on South Memorial Parkway was robbed just after midnight Thursday. Huntsville Police say the manager was locking up when he was approached by three men. One of those robbers had a gun with him.

"They demanded that he go back inside where they had him open the safe and then put him face down and tied him up," says Huntsville Police Sergeant Ed Cain.

Sergeant Ed Cain says the three men took off with a large amount of money. While the manager wasn't hurt, neighboring businesses say they aren't surprised by what happened.

"In front of Hollywood 18, you get a lot of kids out there especially on the weekends. Anytime you see a lot of kids together there is going to be problems. There's drinking and fighting. They can't just go watch a movie and then go home," says businessman Edward Walls.

Walls owns Deep Collectibles on South Memorial Parkway. His store is next door to the Hollywood 18 Theater. He says his business has been lucky the past few years. "You can't really let that bother you. Otherwise, no one is going to be in business."

Now that the hot days of summer are just ahead, many people will be taking in a cool movie. And police say you need to be extra careful when you head out to see your favorite flicks. "If you are going to attend the movies or shopping centers, public open space, be sure you lock your car. Don't put your valuables in plain view," says Cain.

No arrests have been made in this case.

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Evans A Criswell
Huntsville-Decatur Movie Theatre Info Site

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Our cleaning service was packing up for the day (around 7 AM) when these guys (I cant remember how many) got on the roof and busted in through the door up there. (We're stadium seating & the booth has exit catwalks on the sides of the building).

Anyway, the guys had a crobar & they made the cleaners (2 of them) sit on a bench in the lobby where they taped them up.
The robbers then tried to get into the ATM by beating it w/ the crobar (but thats all they did, they just beat it up, didn't get a dollar! )

They tried to get into our money counting room, but the door is really heavy & is double deadbolted, so they couldn't get anything from there.

In the end, they took a little bit of cash from the cleaners & made off with the cleaning crew's car (which the police found at a hotel across the street)

This didn't get much publicity around town, not even in the city newspaper, but it did happen the weekend that "Mummy Returns" came out, so they could have made out with quite a lot of cash (Considering we sold out almost every evening show in our 3 auditoriums that had Mummy)

Former workers sue cinema owner over firings

JACKSON, Tenn. (AP) — Two workers robbed at gunpoint and then fired have filed a lawsuit against their former employer, Amabarish Keshani, owner of Ajay's Jackson Cinema 10.