ARMED ROBBERY became personal to me about 50 years ago. Looking back, this true story could have taken my life in a completely different direction.
For the middle of May it was an uncomfortably hot evening in York, PA. I was studying for my final class at "The Academy of Arts" in a small third floor apartment with a fellow student named Bob, who became very well known in the art community in the Southwest.
Anyway, we had no air conditioning, so our street-side windows were wide open. At about 10 pm our studying was interrupted by the sound of a car screeching to a stop. We looked out the front windows and saw a car stopped sideways in the middle of Beaver street. What we didn't know from our third floor location was that the driver ran from his car into the first floor of our apartment building, through a hallway and straight out the back door.
Distant sirens became louder and in less than two minutes four police cruisers surrounded the guy's car. From our third floor window it was a scene straight out of a TV show. It's dark, sirens and scanners are blasting, and cops with flashlights are searching for their suspect. A neighbor across the street told the cops that the driver of the car ran into our building so they all now converge just below us. From our windows we are watching this small army. That is, until one cop points his flashlight straight up in the air. He sees my friend, shouts "halt" and orders him to come down the three flights of steps to the front door.
With guns pulled the cops climb the steps and proceed to ransack our apartment; pulling off mattresses, throwing clothes from dressers and pulling books from shelves. We had no idea what they were looking for, but I recall thinking that this excitement was much better than studying. Both my friend and I were taken down the steps and forced up against the outside of our apartment building, handcuffed and each taken in a separate cruiser to the York, PA police station.
When we first got to the station, a detective encouraged my friend and I to come clean. He said they had a witness and escorted us to an room with a one-way mirror. Behind the mirror was an elderly lady who witnessed an armed robbery at a convenience store on Queen Street. We stood there for a few minutes and were then escorted back to the detective who said she identified us as the robbers. We were given the option to make a phone call.
Now I'm thinking that quiet studying in a hot apartment isn't all that bad. And just as I decided to call my dad we were told to go back to the room with the one-way mirror. Turns out the convenience store clerk had been patched up at York Hospital - after being pistol whipped and beaten by the robber. The cops brought him to the station and when he saw us, he said he had no idea who we were, but was sure neither of us were the suspect. Two weeks later we read in the York Dispatch that the police caught the suspect in Florida.
One benefit of getting older is perspective. Had the clerk died, this evening incident "coulda' been a life changer". Who knows? I coulda' landed in the York County Prison and my wife, three kids and 14 grandkids wouldn't be part of our life today.
Distant sirens became louder and in less than two minutes four police cruisers surrounded the guy's car. From our third floor window it was a scene straight out of a TV show. It's dark, sirens and scanners are blasting, and cops with flashlights are searching for their suspect. A neighbor across the street told the cops that the driver of the car ran into our building so they all now converge just below us. From our windows we are watching this small army. That is, until one cop points his flashlight straight up in the air. He sees my friend, shouts "halt" and orders him to come down the three flights of steps to the front door.
With guns pulled the cops climb the steps and proceed to ransack our apartment; pulling off mattresses, throwing clothes from dressers and pulling books from shelves. We had no idea what they were looking for, but I recall thinking that this excitement was much better than studying. Both my friend and I were taken down the steps and forced up against the outside of our apartment building, handcuffed and each taken in a separate cruiser to the York, PA police station.
When we first got to the station, a detective encouraged my friend and I to come clean. He said they had a witness and escorted us to an room with a one-way mirror. Behind the mirror was an elderly lady who witnessed an armed robbery at a convenience store on Queen Street. We stood there for a few minutes and were then escorted back to the detective who said she identified us as the robbers. We were given the option to make a phone call.
Now I'm thinking that quiet studying in a hot apartment isn't all that bad. And just as I decided to call my dad we were told to go back to the room with the one-way mirror. Turns out the convenience store clerk had been patched up at York Hospital - after being pistol whipped and beaten by the robber. The cops brought him to the station and when he saw us, he said he had no idea who we were, but was sure neither of us were the suspect. Two weeks later we read in the York Dispatch that the police caught the suspect in Florida.
One benefit of getting older is perspective. Had the clerk died, this evening incident "coulda' been a life changer". Who knows? I coulda' landed in the York County Prison and my wife, three kids and 14 grandkids wouldn't be part of our life today.
This is a crazy, wild story and I know exactly where that building is that your apartment was located in and, used to walk by it two times a day to and from work. You have to wonder how the single suspect abandoning the car became two suspects in the apartment according to the witness. Sure glad she wasn't the only witness... Great recall, friend!
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