Saturday, October 25, 2014

Scary Things


Welcome to our group blog. Robin has picked another fascinating topic just before Halloween - What is the scariest thing that has happened to you?

Ghost stories around the campfire, the ghost in New Orleans, are possibilities. But the one that immediately came to my mind was when my husband and I were held up at gunpoint, in New Orleans.

Paul and I were taking a cruise out of New Orleans, before Katrina. We arrived a few days early to spend time exploring the city. We booked an older hotel a few blocks off Bourbon Street for three nights. The hotel was two stories with a courtyard in the middle and a locked gate into the courtyard. The office was locked at night but you could ring the bell and they’d let you in, or you were given a key so you could open the gate on your own. We chose the key to the gate. We were on the second floor and came in the gate and took the stairs up to our room. 

After checking out the Garden district, Preservation Hall and the French Quarter we finished off each day on Bourbon Street and then we’d walk back to the hotel.  We used our gate key to get in. The last night we picked up a couple of those huge cups of beer and headed back to our hotel room. Paul opened the gate and I walked through, made a u-turn to go up the stairs and started up.

I found myself facing a man in a hoodie with a gun aimed at my husband. The man was at the same level as my left hand holding the beer. I threw the beer directly in his face and screamed loudly as I raced up the stairs expecting to be shot in the leg. (I’d always wondered if I’d be able to or if I’d lose my voice. Guess what? I screamed.) The receptionist rushed out into the courtyard and several people came out of their rooms. She called the police. They were there very quickly and we gave a description of the man and the gun. They caught him shortly after. I have to admit neither Paul nor I slept much that night. We’d never been so scared. We were very glad to be leaving on the cruise the next morning.

I’m looking forward to hearing other people’s stories. You can check them out at the following sites.
Heidi M. http://heidiwriter.wordpress.com/
Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/
Anne Stenhouse http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com/
A.J. Maguire  http://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/
Rachael Kosnski http://the-doodling-booktease.tumblr.com/

Margaret Fieland http://www.margaretfieland.com/blog1/
Geeta Kakade http://geetakakade.blogspot.com/
Marci Baun http://www.marcibaun.com/
Victoria Chatham http://victoriachatham.webs.com/
Diane Bator http://dbator.blogspot.ca/
Fiona McGier http://www.fionamcgier.com/
Ginger Simpson http://mizging.blogspot.com/
Rhobin Courtright http://www.rhobinleecourtright.com/


Happy Halloween!

15 comments:

  1. That is scary, Beverley. You acted with real presence of mind. Anne

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  2. Thanks Anne. 'Presence of mind" isn't what the New Orleans police said. :)

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  3. OH MY! Scary indeed. I'd wonder if I could scream, too. Usually I fall silent at the most critical times. You are very brave Beverley!

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  4. Thanks Rhobin, but like I said to Anne, that's not what the police said. Stupid - comes to mind. I told them I was Canadian and we didn't do guns and they just shook their head.:)

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  5. I'm an American and I don't "do guns" either! I've never even seen one up close, and I hope to continue that way.

    Good thing that you were able to scream. I've often wondered, also, if I'd lose my voice in terror. Glad things turned out alright, and he didn't shoot anyone that time.

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    1. I'm really glad no one got shot, too. Hopefully you'll never need to know if you can scream.

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  6. That was fast thinking, Beverley. I am sure the beer distracted him enough to keep him from shooting you or your husband. I'm glad both you and your husband escaped unscathed.

    Marci

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    1. Thanks Marci. Yes, beer has more than one use. :)

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  7. Wow... courage! I would have been so terrified! It's certainly a scary event!

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    1. Thanks Melissa. I'm not sure about courage. I kind of just reacted - didn't even think about it.

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  8. Oh my gosh! What a terrible experience. Quick reaction on your part, excellent!

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    1. Thanks Heidi. Definitely not an experience I want to repeat.

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  9. Oh, Beverley, I completely understand. It would take me pages to tell what happened to us, but we came face to face with a criminal trying to break into my daughter's house. (She was constantly being burglarized.) Fortunately the criminal didn't show his gun until later and by then my husband was tracking him through my daughter's semi-wooded neighborhood of nice homes. But when the dispatcher on the phone with me asked if we knew where my husband was I opened the door to look and there stood the man at my daughter's door. At that point, I knew from my husband the criminal had a gun and what it was. (Not pretty and would out-fire anything the cops were carrying!)

    Let's just say we got to know our police force that night. They had quite a bit of respect for my husband who never lost sight of the man and knew his every movement including where he stashed the gun. My husband would appear and vanish before the cops could stop him. LOL

    Problem was the police couldn't find my husband or the man. They wanted my husband off the streets to protect him. I'm laughing at them because those sweet innocent boys, we call our local cops, never had to survive in Vietnam. My husband didn't need a gun or have one on him! Nobody slept that night either - we were all at the police station.

    In the meantime, the criminal was picked up, the gun was found where my husband said it was, he criminal was processed, and given bond. Guess where the bondsman dropped him off? At my daughter's house! OMG!!! She brought the baby and stayed with us that night.

    Our police force got a police dog shortly after that incident and different guns. I wonder why?

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    1. Oh, never threaten a daughter in front of her daddy! I'd say I was married to an alpha!

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    2. OMG! Now that's a scary story. And it lasted a lot longer than mine. I can't believe they'd drop him off in front of your daughter's place. (shaking my head) And yup, definitely an alpha man.
      Thanks for sharing.

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