Posted on 12/11/2003 1:01:08 PM PST by Hat-Trick
By David Hendee | World-Herald Staff Writer
Gas 'N Shop's letter of thanks aside, Schuyler Mayor David Reinecke said the Police Department probably won't participate in future fake robberies involving unknowing victims.
Reinecke said Gas 'N Shop officials asked Schuyler Police Chief Leonard Hiltner to help stage a bogus armed robbery as a reality-training exercise for a group of its convenience store managers.
"We probably wouldn't do it again," Reinecke said Wednesday.
The Nov. 14 episode at the Gas 'N Shop in Schuyler involved two out-of-uniform police officers who burst into the convenience store with guns. One carried a handgun, the other a modified shotgun. Both were unloaded, it was learned later.
The bogus bandits ordered everyone to lie on the floor and to hand over purses and wallets. Among the "victims" were 11 company managers and supervisors from eastern Nebraska and western Iowa who were at the store for a meeting.
The incident unnerved manager Kristine Johnson of South Sioux City, Neb., to the point that she could not return to work and quit her job.
Johnson said she feared that the gunmen, who were not masked, would panic at the sight of so many potential witnesses and kill everyone in a massacre reminiscent of last year's slayings at a Norfolk, Neb., bank. Norfolk is 45 miles northwest of Schuyler.
The incident, first reported in Tuesday editions of The World-Herald, raised concerns about someone inside the store or an armed passer-by defending the "victims" by shooting the "robbers" or attacking them with other weapons.
Gas 'N Shop's lawyer declined to comment, saying it was an internal training matter.
Reinecke said the danger-to-police issue surfaced among city officials after the incident.
"It was staged pretty good," he said. "I'm sure it looked like a robbery."
Reinecke said he didn't know whether the Police Department's role in the episode will require an administrative directive governing any future proposals for similar performances.
Hiltner said Wednesday that he had no comment on the issue of officer safety in the incident or whether the department would do it again.
Shortly after the training episode, Schuyler officials received a letter of thanks from Gas 'N Shop's corporate headquarters in Lincoln.
Reinecke said the letter indicated that the robbery incident was excellent training and that the store managers learned a lot.
The incident is receiving international attention. A British cell phone news service lists the story under "quirkies at a glance." It also was posted on an Internet forum for Smith & Wesson firearm collectors under the heading, "Good Thing I Wasn't There."
Stay Safe !
It may be somewhat embellished for drama's sake. Normally the Omaha World-Herald isn't fit for lining a bird cage. I don't doubt, however, that the story is true. A local police chief, when asked by a local business's remote office HQ to conduct this "training" - made an absolutely assinine decision to accomodate their request. It amazes me that people, particularly those who are sworn to protect life and property, have so little ability to visualize the potential consequences of their decisions. This was a training exercise, for goodnesssake, and deciding to proceed was not something that required the split-second, spur-of-the-moment decision making normally required of LEO's! This decision was made at a desk, and the Chief should issue an apology and promise to never do this again, and if he can't do that, he should resign or be fired.
This never would have happened in Norfolk, lest we forget what happened at the U.S. Bank branch office last year. It's no wonder those folks were terrified. I truly hope you're not attempting to defend the Chief's decisions in this situation - mainly participating in this ill-concieved "training" exercise.
Hat-Trick
Yeah both were unloaded later that evening when they cleaned their weapons. this is the blatant lie i must address. No LEO would enter any situation on the street unarmed, or unloaded NEVER. A spokesman would however issue a feather-unruffling lie to sooth the frightened sheep.
This article may or may not be true, but this last tidbit is the greatest, silliest lie since we were reading lips. If any ready clerk had attempted to defend himself, he would have met Mr. Glock, and Mr Buck, coming at him from body-armored "robbers", then he would have met his maker.
Let's please not kid ourselves.
"It may be somewhat embellished for drama's sake. Normally the Omaha World-Herald isn't fit for lining a bird cage. I don't doubt, however, that the story is true. A local police chief, when asked by a local business's remote office HQ to conduct this "training" - made an absolutely assinine decision to accomodate their request. It amazes me that people, particularly those who are sworn to protect life and property, have so little ability to visualize the potential consequences of their decisions. This was a training exercise, for goodnesssake, and deciding to proceed was not something that required the split-second, spur-of-the-moment decision making normally required of LEO's! This decision was made at a desk, and the Chief should issue an apology and promise to never do this again, and if he can't do that, he should resign or be fired.
This never would have happened in Norfolk, lest we forget what happened at the U.S. Bank branch office last year. It's no wonder those folks were terrified. I truly hope you're not attempting to defend the Chief's decisions in this situation - mainly participating in this ill-concieved "training" exercise.
No, I'm saying that I personaly don't know if it's true, if you say it is, then now I do. My point is, the "robbers" guns were loaded, and if any clerk had attempted to defend himself, he would have gotten BLOWN AWAY, and his return fire would have only met body-armor. Im saying this as a reality-check to posters who say this excercise would have ended differently had they been present.
Well, yes, but not in the way they imagined. I must not be making clear points, sorry.
I wasn't defending this bizarre "training" op. I can see wheels turning in minds though, this could be used as a way to insure those who exercise self defense in the neo-USSA (streng verboten) are gunned down by the state. Sort of a criminal-protection act. Surrender like sheep as you should and live, defend your life and get what you deserve, death at the hands of the state which is what the gun-banners wish for us anyway.
Now I understand the points you were making. Yep, unfortunately, this is the direction we are heading in. It'll be real interesting to see the progress of LB265 this year in the Nebraska Unicameral (Concealed Handgun Carry Act), as I'm anticipating never seen before levels of hysteria and Chicken-littling from the gun grabbers.
I don't know, but were you, by any chance, on the Harry E. Yarnell around 1969?
No, HEY was a Leahy class DLG (DLG-17). It didn't have squat for guns but it did have Terriers at both ends.
I was on an Adams class DDG, the Hoel DDG-13 from 71-73, though.
On the Yarnell, we had one particularly clueless ensign who thought it would be a good idea to have a guy fake a nuke weapons intrusion. Poor Guido damn near got himself killed when he ran away just like the ensign told him to.
That sonar dome did some really strange things to forward berthing compartments underway. (I think the only thing forward of us was the boatswain's locker.)
When it popped out of the water, there was a huge jump up, then it acted like a parachute on the way back down. Of course, as soon as it hit the water again, it dug back in for a quick jerk down. Real fun trying to sleep in the north Atlantic. :=)
Back in my day, the dark ages or thereabouts, many called it the Wierd Harold, but those were the commie pinko hippy types, claiming it was biased in favor of Republicans and Tricky Dick. But when I've read it of late, I'd say your assement is correct. Imagine what the Lincoln Paper, which was liberal even then, is like now. :)
'Bout the only thing that hasn't changed since then is that Ernie Chambers is still a state Senator. Sheesh.
Like any media outlet, they aren't in the business of news reporting. They are in the business of selling advertising, yet they tout all these "principles" and this "journalistic integrity" crap, and rarely do they ask the difficult questions, lest they napalm a political bridge that the O-W-H leadership has spent decades maintaining. That said, I still love Nebraska, as it is as good a place as I've found to raise a family. If we could just get the CCW legislation passed......Freegards,
Hat-Trick
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