The Time I was Robbed

This is my first post here and it's about the time I got robbed at gunpoint.<br><br>This is something that happened to me pretty recently, last week. Tonight, I'm thinking about it a lot, because I'm somewhere I usually don't go and, well you'll see.<br><br>I live in Miami, and I used to go out a lot to eat to small, family owned hole-in-the-wall restaurants. I'm sure you've heard the advice not to eat at chain restaurants when you travel, because you can eat there anywhere, including at home, so why waste your time in a city eating at Chili's when you can go eat at some local spot. I think like this even in my hometown, I like to try new, locally owned restaurants. So I eat at these restaurants a lot.<br><br>I know there are some places, even in my hometown, that I shouldn't go to. I'm a white girl and I live in a majority Hispanic area, so I'm already an outsider. I know some of the neighborhoods I go to to eat aren't the safest, but I've never had any problems in my life. <br><br>So last week, I was hungry and on my way home from work. I decided to stop at one of these hole-in-the-wall places. It's a little building, even has a tiny little sign out front that just says "restaurant" in Spanish. I just want to reiterate how small this place is. This is not somewhere you usually find a lot of people, and I'm used to that. I walk in and there's one table in front of me with a couple eating, and another table by the window with a couple of guys who looked like they were in their early 20s. I sit at the table next to them, by the window. I don't know why I did this exactly, I don't usually sit that close to other people. I guess it was because there were only three tables in the place and I didn't want to sit all the way in the back alone, with strangers behind me.<br><br>They notice me sit down, and I notice them, but I ignore them and look at my menu (which is always on the wall in these types of places) and just pretend to be busy.<br><br>I order my food and the guy at the table closest to mine pretty quickly starts talking to me. The conversation is pretty normal, they ask me how my day is, where I work, etc. I don't mind this and we chat for a little while, but they start getting a little more personal, asking where I live, if I live alone, if I have a boyfriend, etc. I'm getting a little uncomfortable at this point, but I don't want to be rude, so I just kind of laugh awkwardly and say "yeah" and "no" as briefly as I can. They notice this and start getting a little more quiet. This was probably the scariest part for me because I could tell I offended them, and I didn't want to offend them because who knows what they were capable of.<br><br>The waitress comes out with my food, I start eating, and they start talking again. I don't want to be rude so I try to keep responding, but try to be breve. This whole time, I'm noticing they're not eating. They have no food, they're just sitting at this table with empty beer bottles. Something felt off and I finally decide to get up and ask my waitress if I can sit in the back.<br><br>She says no, the back is "closed" and I'm like "okay". My only thought is to just eat as fast as I can and get out. So I do.<br><br>The guys at the table keep trying to talk to me but I'm just ignoring them and trying to hurry and finish my food. I finally finish, I get up and go to the door, and I see them stand up, out of the corner of my eye, and follow me outside.<br><br>I get to my car, which is parked on the street, and as I'm opening my car door, they come behind me and one of them puts a gun to my head. The other one is rummaging through my purse and he takes my wallet. I can tell he's taking my cash and my credit cards, and he's looking at my license. I'm so worried he's going to take that because I don't want him to know my address. I pray that he doesn't, thinking about the possibility of them coming to my house in the middle of the night to rob me, or worse. He doesn't, but he does look at it.<br><br>I don't know how I was so calm. I don't know why they didn't shoot me. I don't know. I just know that eventually they run off, and I get in my car and drive away.<br><br>I'm counting my blessings tonight, because I could have been killed. I was sure I was going to be killed, and they didn't kill me. I could have had my license stolen, but it wasn't. I could have gotten car jacked and they could have driven me to God knows where before killing me, but I drove away in my own car. I could have had a gun put in my mouth, but it was only put to the back of my head.<br><br>I know I'll never see them again and I'm glad for that, but I wish I could let them know how scared they made me, how violated I feel when I think about it, how happy I am to be alive.<br><br>But most of all, I'm glad I didn't die.<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>EDIT: I wanted to update because it's been a couple of days and I'm feeling a little better, and I also wanted to respond to some of the things you guys mentioned.<br><br>I'm not trying to gloss over what happened to me. I didn't want to post about this at all, for a lot of reasons. I think people who have been through horrible things like rape or murder or serious assault or kidnapping or whatever have every right to talk about it as much as they want, because they went through something so horrible that I don't think anyone else is in a position to criticize them for it. I guess that's how I was thinking when I wrote my post, but I also don't think I went through something like that, I think it was just a scary situation that could have turned into something terrible, but it didn't. I also didn't want to talk about the details of what they looked like because it's irrelevant and mentioning their race/ethnicity would make me sound racist and blaming an entire group of people for what a couple of them did. I also didn't want to talk about the details of what happened because I don't want this incident to haunt me forever. I want to be able to get over it and forget about it, because I think that's an important part of moving on and being happy.<br><br>I was thinking about this a lot tonight because I'm house sitting in a different part of town and walking around the neighborhood. I just walked past a restaurant that I went to with my dad once and we had a great time, and that made me happy. I think that happiness is so much more important than any amount of fear or sadness or bitterness. I don't want to hold onto this negative experience for any longer than I need to. I'm going to get over it, and I'm going to move on.<br><br>I appreciate your advice, and I appreciate a lot of the things you've said. I guess that's why I made this update, because I do appreciate a lot of what you guys have said.<br><br> Tonight, I was walking around with pepper spray in my pocket and I've been thinking about getting a gun, but I don't know if that's something I'd ever actually do. I've also been thinking about taking a self-defense class. I really don't want to carry a weapon, but I do want to feel safer and more empowered in a way that will help me defend myself. I also don't know if I'm going to be-report this, I spoke to a police officer about it but I didn't file a report. I guess I just didn't want to deal with it, but I might. <br><br>I also wanted to thank people who have shared their own stories and suggestions, I really appreciate that.<br><br>Please keep sharing your stories and giving me advice, I really appreciate it. <br><br>&#x200B;