Wednesday, March 25, 2009

How to go from happy to horrified in one day

March 24th started out as a great day. I went into work and was commended by my GM. Turns out we had a quality inspector check in last night and he went to my GM today and gave his report. Apparently, I was the only person at the front desk in 4 years to get a perfect review. So I was feeling pretty good about myself.

But then at about 8pm after everyone else had left, I had a man come in and ask me for a pen and paper. I hand it to him. He gives it back to me and I read it. It says: "This is a robberry. Give me the mone and no one wil get hert." Yes, spelled just like that. Now I admit this guy looked a little slow and I thought it was a prank.

I said to him, "Are you serious?" waiting for my manager to come out from the corner or something. He has his hand in his pocket and starts saying, "Give me the money, I don't want to hurt you." At this same time, I am on the phone with Jack and there are a few people in my lobby. I say to Jack, "Honey, I have to go. Apparently, I'm being robbed."

He says, "What?" Of course at this time, we are both thinking it's somebody playing a joke. But the guy starts smacking at my phone saying, "Hang up the phone and give me the money." His hand comes over the counter and hits the button that hangs up the phone. I say I don't have
anything here, but that I have money in my purse. I grab my laptop and shove it into the side cubby.

He says, "Get it for me. Give what money you have." I come back out and he says, "I don't want to hurt you. Where's the money?" I say, "Hold on. I'll get it." At this point, there is another guest that comes into my lobby to check in. The man jumps over my counter and grabs me saying, "Give me the money, come on, don't make me hurt you." He has taken his hand out of his pocket and it doesn't look like there's a gun, but I don't know. I was so scared that he would hurt me.

He shoves me against the cash drawer and rifles through another drawer. Then he pushes me away from the cash drawer, saying, "The money, where is it?" He yanks the front off of the cash drawer, knocking the till onto the ground. I begin to scream, and yell that there's a robbery, call 911. The man scooped up whatever cash he could and ran out the side door.

Thankfully there were people having a meeting upstairs and some other guests heard me and tried to chase the guy down. The guest that had walked in was already calling 911 once she saw him jump over and I followed suit. I then called my manager and she said she would be right there.

Now, aside from being scared, the most embarrassing thing happened when he grabbed me. I peed my pants. Ugh, so the cops show up and the lobby is now full of people that came to help me. Not only am I crying, but feeling really uncomfortable. Thank goodness I wear black pants to work. I call Jack and say please bring me some pants.

The cops question me over and over about what happened and what he looked like. One does the fingerprint powder and then they go into the back and watch the video. Yes, the video. You can only see the back of him, but everything that happened is on there. I was dealing with them for about 2 hours.

My GM shows up as well and immediately she asks if I'm okay. I say yeah. After all the questions and whatnot, then my GM finally counts out what is missing. Now, the reason why I was so weird about not letting this idiot get to the drawer was that I has just taken the payment from the upstairs group about 10 minutes before. No one had been in the lobby at that time.

So not only did I have the normal $300 till, I also had $150 extra. I hadn't dropped it in the safe, since there's usually not a reason to until the end of your shift. Turns out he got away with about $197. I was very angry about it. More than scared, I was pissed off that the hotel is in my care and something like this happens. I know that's dumb, but I have been in the hotels for almost 6 years and this has never happened to me.

Unfortunately, the guy got away. The nice people that tried to catch him lost him around a corner. But a copy of the video was made and given to the cops. So maybe it will help.

My GM said that she is going to be rearranging the schedule for the next week, so no one will be alone just in case he comes back. There was a bike hidden in the bushes and there is a belief it might have been his. So he may be the dumbest criminal and come in to ask for his bike. If he does, I'll be ready.

As for me, I am off for the next 3 days. That was actually my schedule, so yay.

But I am okay. So don't worry. Some stupid moron is not going to shake me up.

Love to all.

7 comments:

suzanne said...

Sounds absolutely terrifying!
Take your three days to completely relax and do something enjoyable :)

Mr. Macabre said...

I am so sorry for you! That is scary beyond belief! I have heard that chocolate, alcohol and intense pampering of oneself has wonderous healing properties :)

Carrie Mae said...

Oh, that's upsetting!

I'm glad you're okay. Don't fret over 'something like this' happening on your watch, it could happen to anyone. Your safety is more important than a little bit of money.

Ruthie said...

Thank you all so much for those kind words. I appreciate it more than you know.

I am going to do the best I can to relax and regain my sense of self. I think I will take Mr. Macabre's advice and get some "refreshments".

It's true, the money is and was not worth my life.

Again, thank you all so much!

:hugs everyone:

Chris 'Frog Queen' Davis said...

So very sorry to hear that. I work at a financial institution and it is always horrifying when one of our branches is robbed. And it is happening more and more.

The only funny thing about the story is the spelling...happens to us too :) For instance writing your note on one of your blank deposit slip. Genius :)

You handled it very bravely. As we always say the money is insured and can be replaced. The fabulous people like you....not so.

Take care of brave and fabulous self. :) Thinking of you.

Cheers!

Anonymous said...

Thank God you only had to change your pants. Who cares? I would have peed in mine too. In a situation like that, one never knows if the danger is major or small. The hotel can replace the money, I can't make another Ruthie.
I love you even though you were almost willing to trade your laptop for your life. Yeah, I caught that.

Molly said...

Ruthie,

I sure hope you are able to relax and calm your nerves a bit before returning to work. I'm so glad you're OK. I Love You!!!