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So this happened about five years ago when I was nine months pregnant.

I was Christmas shopping at the mall with my then seven and fifteen-year-old daughters

one Saturday night in a very safe city with a very low crime rate.

There was an applebee's connected to the mall and we ended our shopping pretty late

and the mall stores were starting to close.

So I took my kids to the connected applebees for a late dinner.

We finished up eating at about 10 pm and leave out the applebees entrance and the practically

deserted parking lot with shopping bags in tow.

As we got to the car I was in the middle of maneuvering the shopping bags on my arms

to find my keys.

When a fifty-year-old crusty-looking guy starts walking up from somewhere in the parking

lot with shaggy grey white hair and a faded flannel shirt and old jeans.

I noticed him briskly approaching when he was about forty feet away and he said,

this is a stick-up.

...