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To clarify, I was not the photographer!

PUCKER wrote:Crazy stuff fickman!!

I used to hunt/shoot in the field (not so much of a field now) across 1709/Golden Triangle from the 24 Hour Fitness back in high school (behind the old lumber store). Used to work nights during high school at the Bear Creek Mini Mart (never got robbed, had a drive off or two though), then Mr. Jim's Pizza next door. Not much "exciting" happened in Keller back then (other than the mischief my fellow buddies and I created ).

hahaha

I did "College for Kids" one summer at TCC when I was in elementary school. My astronomy class had a field night and we came to Keller to get away from the city light pollution for better stargazing. I lived in Bedford and I thought I was halfway to Wichita Falls by the time we got out here.

I got to the gym last night about half an hour before midnight and saw four Keller PD officers scouring the railroad tracks between the Shell station and the 24 Hour Fitness with flashlights. There was one KPD SUV in the 24 Hour parking lot, shining it's lights on the railroad track area.

My first thought was, "Oh great, they're looking for a fleeing BG." My next thought was, "I wonder if they pulled somebody over and suspect he threw some drugs, a gun, or another substance out there." They had a strong presence and were 30-50 yards away, so I opened the "special" pocket on my gym bag and went on in. . . on heightened alert. I figured if the club wasn't safe they would have stopped me.

When I went inside, it didn't take long to figure out what happened. I saw more than a handful of cell phone pictures and videos captured roughly one hour before.

The highlights of the event (pieced together through eyewitness accounts and relayed stories by the officers, take exact details with a grain of salt):
- Two thugs went into the Shell station pretended to buy beer. When the cashier opened the till, one of the guys grabbed all of the cash and a beer and scrammed. I do not know if they presented or threatened the use of a weapon. I also do not know if they battered the cashier.

- The thug with the money fled across the railroad tracks and entered 24 Hour Fitness. He used the restroom and asked to borrow the service desk phone up front. They allowed him to make some calls. He called his accomplice no fewer than five times but did not receive an answer.

- His buddy didn't answer because he was at the Shell station discussing the events with the police. I do not know if they nabbed him there or nabbed him elsewhere and took him back to the store. Regardless, they noticed the five calls and checked on the number, resolving it back to the 24 Hour Fitness next door.

- Two officers charged into the health club. A patrolman with his sidearm and a sergeant with an AR-15. They noticed the BG right away and, along with much yelling and plenty of profanities, got him to the ground in the front lobby and handcuffed him without incident. I heard no reports that he was armed.

- The BG arrested in 24 Hour Fitness had been in jail as recently as a week ago.

- At about 2:00 am, the cleaning crew found $500+ in cash stowed in a. . . umm. . . feminine hygiene dispenser in one of the family bathrooms. They found all of the coins in trash can underneath the trash bag. There was an empty beer can in the trash can and evidence that something had been flushed, but no amount of skillful plunger work could retrieve it. (It turns out, this is what the officers had been looking for around the train tracks.)

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Many lessons (feel free to add to the list):
- Always be alert.

- Always have your firearm accessible.

- The primary scene of the crime is often not the end of the BG's spree. The gym is known as a place for petty thefts and vehicle burglaries, but being so close to two gas stations and the railroad, one should expect a higher probability that a violent crime could spill over.

- Cameras are only good for investigation and detection after the fact. Shell and 24 Hour Fitness have plenty of cameras between them.

- If the BG was still in jail, this wouldn't have happened.

- BG's often lack smarts - which can actually be scarier when they become desperate.

- In the gym, he had blended in with the members and looked like a young male there for some exercise. For all I know, he could've been a member.

- Bad things happen in nice areas. (I had a run in years ago with an aggressive homeless man at the Chevron across 1709 from that Shell station.)

- Bad things do happen before midnight. If I'd been on time to the gym, I would've been right in the middle of the events as I walked in.

- Being in a safe place (not that the gym is) still isn't safe. You have to think. .. is anybody in this building somebody's ex-wife? ex-girlfriend? sleeping somewhere he shouldn't? owe the wrong person money? drive like a jerk? in a legal dispute with a neighbor? Any of these emotionally charged situations can explode into an incident anytime and anywhere. . . and you could be in the middle of it. Last night was a little reminder of that. The gym wasn't being robbed, but it ended up with a robber in the building and a police confrontation.

Kudos to KPD and Fort Worth PD (the gym is actually in Fort Worth). . . from all accounts they responded very quickly and effectively.