Man with a knife robbed us at work

So about four weeks ago, we were robbed.

This actually happened a few days after my

boss found out about my YouTube channel,

and one of the first things she actually

said to me was after it happened was not

to make a video about it. She said,

"Daniel, don't make a video about this,"

and I was kind of disappointed about that

because it was a pretty interesting thing

that happened, and I really wanted to talk

about it. But since I don't work there

anymore, I guess I can make a video about

it now. I really don't understand why she

wouldn't want me to make a video about it.

Maybe she's scared that someone might see

the video. And it will bring bad publicity

to the petrol station. They might say,

oh, this place got robbed, it's not safe

there anymore, let's stop going there.

But only 15% of my audience, or my

viewers, come from the United Kingdom in

the first place. So what are the chances

of that 15% of people actually being

regular customers to the petrol station?

That's like— there's like 0% chance of

that actually happening. Besides, if I

made a video about the place getting

robbed and it got millions of views, or

thousands and thousands of views, Then

that's a good thing. It's like free

advertising for the place. The other staff

members were telling the regular customers

what happened anyway because the police

were there and they were dusting for

fingerprints and the customers were

asking, what's going on? What happened?

So we had to tell them that we got robbed

last night. So how come it's okay to tell

the regular customers that we got robbed,

but I'm not allowed to tell thousands of

people on the internet that don't even

live in the same country and are never

going to come to the petrol station

anyway? It just doesn't make sense to me.

Anyway, it was really frustrating because

something finally interesting happened,

and I was kind of hoping that something

like this would happen so I, so I could

make a video about it. One of the main

reasons why I got this job in the first

place was because I wanted interesting

things to happen so I could make videos

about it. It's kind of hard to make videos

about your life when nothing really

happens in your life. So here's what

happened. It was about 2 AM on a Sunday

night, and I was standing behind the till

just staring off into space, daydreaming

like I usually do. And then this crazy guy

comes into the store shouting. He had a

t-shirt wrapped around his face. At first

I thought it was just like some kind of

drunk guy pulling a prank or joking around

or messing around, so I didn't really take

it too seriously. And then he started

walking towards the till like really fast

while shouting things like— he was

shouting something like 10 bottles of

something, I didn't catch what he was

saying. And he was shouting, open the

door, open the door! Because we have this

door that you have to open to get behind

the till, and he thought it was locked,

but it was always— it's always unlocked.

So he just opened it himself, and then he

came behind the till, and then first thing

he did was he grabbed a few bottles of

vodka, and then he opened up the

cigarettes case, and then he grabbed like

a handful of cigarettes. He was standing

literally right next to me. The first

thing I did was I grabbed my phone, which

was on the desk, and I put it into my

pocket because I was really worried he was

going to see my phone and snatch it. I

really didn't want to lose my phone

because I have a lot of important photos

and videos on it, like photos of my

ex-girlfriend that I haven't uploaded

anywhere to the internet yet, and I really

didn't want to lose those. So I took my

phone and I put it in my pocket, and I

just stood there behind the till, behind

the cash register, just standing there

watching him taking stuff. He just took 3

bottles of vodka and about 5 or 6 packs of

cigarettes. He didn't take any money,

which was kind of strange. If I was gonna

rob somewhere, I would just open the cash

register and take loads of money. It's

easier to carry a fistful of £20 notes

than it is to carry loads of bottles of

vodka and cigarettes. I kind of wanted to

ask him if he needed a bag. After he

grabbed as many things as he could carry,

he left the shop. And around the same

time, there was this other customer who

was also coming into the store at the

exact same time as he was leaving. And

they kind of had a little scuffle. I could

hear shouting. He said something like,

get out of my way, I've got a knife. And

then I could hear a vodka— one of the

vodka bottles smashing as it dropped to

the floor. And then the other customer

came in, he paid for his petrol, and then

he just said, did you call the police? I

said yes, and then he left. And then after

that, I pressed the red panic buttons,

which notify the police. I really should

have pressed them earlier. I should have

pressed them as soon as he came into the

store, but I wasn't sure what he was

doing. I thought it was just some drunk

guy pulling a prank or joking around. I

didn't realize he was going to rob the

place. So I pressed the, um, the panic

buttons, and we waited. My coworker was

also there. He was at the coffee machine,

which is outside of the till, outside of

the cash register area at the time, and he

just started cleaning up the smashed

bottle of vodka, and I just stood behind

the cash register Thinking to myself,

finally something interesting happened and

I can make a video about it, and I was

kind of excited. Around 6 to 7 minutes

later, the police came. About 4 to 5

police cars pulled up at the petrol

station and around 8 or 10 policemen came

out. 2 of the police cars drove off in

opposite directions to try and track down

this guy. I was really surprised with how

many people they sent. I thought they

would just send maybe 1 or 2 cars with 4

policemen, but they sent nearly 5 police

cars and nearly 10 police guys, and it

kind of felt like it was a bit over the

top. All of this just for one guy. Who

stole some alcohol and cigarettes. It was

like they were hunting down some kind of

terrorist. Most of the police people left

to try and track down the guy, but 2 of

them stayed behind to ask us questions,

and I had to make a statement. I had to

talk to this policeman, and he asked me

loads of questions, and I had to describe

to him what the person looks like, which I

didn't quite understand because you could

see on the CCTV footage what he looks

like. So I didn't really see the point in

asking me what I thought he looks like

because I couldn't really remember what he

looks like. I was kind of like in this

state of shock. I remembered he was

wearing jeans and a gray t-shirt, and he

had a— he had like a black t-shirt over

his face. But I was wrong. When you check

the camera footage, he was actually

wearing a black shirt and a gray shirt on

his face. And my coworker kept saying he

was wearing a balaclava, which was

completely wrong. He was wearing a t-shirt

wrapped around his face. Like, you know

what kids do when they try to pretend to

be ninjas? They get the t-shirt, they wrap

it around their face. It was like that.

And about 40 minutes later, the police guy

started talking on his radio, and I could

hear the conversation, and they were

saying that they caught the guy. About 40

minutes later, they caught the guy in a

nearby village, and they found the vodka.

He tried ditching it in a bush. He was

also struggling and trying to get away,

so they had to pin him down to the floor

and use some force. They took him away and

they took him to the police station. It

was kind of funny. The stupidity of some

people is just amazing. He was so

desperate to have a drink and a smoke, he

was willing to rob a petrol station and

risk going to jail. Over what? Over a

drink and a smoke. And because he said he

had a knife, I'm guessing he got a longer

sentence because that makes it more of a

serious crime. After the police finished

questioning us, this forensics woman came

and she had this big black suitcase and

she had this big camera and she was taking

photos inside of the store. And she had

these tiny paintbrushes and this gray dust

and she was dusting for fingerprints. And

it was kind of interesting because I've

never seen anyone dust for fingerprints

before. It kind of felt like I was in some

kind of crime drama TV show. And then I

went home, and that was it. I wasn't

really scared or terrified. I wasn't

traumatized. I didn't have any problems

going back to work the next night. The

only thing I was thinking about was I was

just so disappointed that I couldn't make

a video about it. No, I didn't try to stop

him because he was really big. He was

almost 5'11. I'm only 5'8, and I

don't have the capability of physically

stopping someone from doing something.

Look at my arm. You could snap it like a

twig. I'm weaker than most women. It could

have been really dangerous if I tried to

stop him. You don't know what desperate

people like that can do in those

situations, and I'm not going to risk my

life defending a petrol station.