10. Gas Station

I used to work as a cashier at a BP that was right off the interstate. It doubled as a truck stop and was open 24 hours. I had worked there for about a year so I was fairly comfortable with the job and I was used to working night shifts alone, despite being a smaller female.

So I was working one night and everything was going as usual…it was about 1am and I saw a pickup truck pull in. Three passengers got out and entered the store. The two men were wearing camouflage outfits and the woman was wearing jeans and a sweater. The men talked to the woman outside of the door before entering and then they all went straight to me at the counter and asked for some cigarettes.

As the one man was paying, the other one went to the other side of the store looking at drinks. I looked at the woman and realized that she had a look of panic on her face. I immediately felt in my gut that something bad was going on. We made eye contact and she mouthed the words ‘help me’. Then the man grabbed his cigarettes with one hand and the woman’s arm with the other and yelled at his buddy that they were ready to go. I was only 19 and wasn’t really sure what to do so I waited until they walked out the door and slid my hand under the counter and hit the panic button.

About 5-10 minutes later the cops got there and I told them what happened. They looked at the surveillance videos and told me that they were investigating a kidnapping with a description of that same vehicle. I told them which direction they went on the interstate and the rest of the officers left after them while I gave my statement to the one who stayed behind. I never did find out if they caught them or not.