Laptops and Gunshots

This morning on our way to language school we saw two guys wrestling up in front of us. I said, "Missy, I think somebody's getting robbed!" Sure enough, the two guys take off running, and then we heard a shot followed by a second shot a few seconds later. We hurried up to the corner to see what had happened and saw an American lying on the road.

We had passed the same American a few days earlier on our way to school. He would sit on the curb with a laptop, trying to get a wireless signal. Missy and I had commented about how foolish he was being. Well, today a guy pulled a gun on the American and asked for the laptop. Instead of just giving the robber the laptop, the American put up a fight. The robber shot the American in the foot, but the American kept chasing him, so the robber shot him in the leg.

Someone called 911 right away, but it took about 20 minutes for the police to show up (even though there is a police station a few blocks away) and 30 minutes for an ambulance to arrive. By that time the victim's thigh had swollen to the size of a basketball. Thankfully, the man was hit in the leg instead of the upper body and the bullet passed through. I was the only one on the scene who knew Spanish and English well, so I translated for the police and ambulance driver. Yes, I said ambulance driver, because he was the only one who came in the ambulance! A fellow student from our language school who had also seen the robbery take place ended up riding with the victim to the hospital, or else the poor guy would have been in the back of the ambulance all by himself.

So the moral of the story is, "Don't sit on a curb with a laptop, and if you get robbed and gunpoint stop chasing the robber after he shoots you in the foot." Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me, so I don't have any pictures to share.

A fellow language school student was robbed at gunpoint yesterday at about the same place. It is scary, but at the same time we just have to trust God and not live in constant fear.