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Nimrods at Citgo refuse to call for emergency help

By Marc • Nov 25th, 2005 • Category: the Ranter

GARY, Ind. – A woman who was robbed at knifepoint while pumping gas into her church’s van couldn’t believe it when the gas station attendant refused to call police for help.

‘I ran, of course, to the nearest place,’ Gary resident Rosetta Heffner said, recounting Sunday’s robbery.

Her request to call 911 was met with silence from the other side of the Citgo station’s counter.

She tried again.

The clerk’s response?

‘Use your cell phone.’

You’re kidding right?

Heffner couldn’t believe it.

“I thought it would be a safe haven, anything could have happened, and he told me to use my cell phone,” Heffner told the Post-Tribune of Merrillville.

The gas station’s manager said he was sorry about the robbery, but clerks at the station do not make emergency calls from the front counter, fearing retaliation for criminals.

“We have to be careful,” he said. “If we call, then there are problems. They can hear. So we use the back phone. We are always helpful to the customer, but we have to protect ourselves.”

So you just give in to them? You want your business to be a safe haven for criminals and brigands instead of paying customers? That don’t make no sense….

Members of the Moving Spirit Church, which Heffner attends, regularly use the gas station to refill the church’s vehicles.

At least they used to.

Member Latrell Peterson said the church will take its business elsewhere.

“We have eight vans and three buses rolling every day, but we don’t go there now,” Peterson said.

I don’t think I would go there anymore either.

We’ve got a real problem in this country where we just will lay down and be the victim. At some point we have to stand up for ourselves and say, “I will not be a victim!” I wonder how long it will take.

[Clerk Refuses to Call Police After Robbery - Yahoo! News]

Marc is a Catholic technology geek living in Tennessee. He blogs at Wild Tangents and is the host of the Catholic Vocations Podcast.
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