Bookstores and bad dudes

My lovely wife and I love used bookstores. Yes, there are few that still exist.

A few days back we drove over to the store, only to find it closed. That was unusual. Normally when the owner is out of town there's a woman who covers for him.

Today he was open. My lovely wife and I stocked up on good reading material. While waiting for my wife to finish shopping, I struck up a conversation with the owner. He's originally from my home state of New Hampshire, so we hit it off.

My wife asked him why he was closed earlier. Not that long ago a young man hit him in the head with a steel pipe and tried to rob the store. Even with his head bleeding profusely, he was able to throw the guy out of the store. Then he called 911. It took 28 minutes for the police to arrive. That's a long long time.

While the robber didn't make off with anything, he still cost the store owner a lot of money. The owner used to let his help run the store when he wasn't there. Now he fears for their safety, so he closes the doors when he has to be out of town. It's a sad sign of the times.

-Sixbears