Surviving Unemployment

I wrote this within weeks of it happening for two reasons, one I didn't want so much time to go by that I forgot & two it was a form of stress relief.

This was one of the scariest things I have ever been through in my life. I jokingly call it my "hostage type" situation, I don't believe I was a true hostage, but I've had friends disagree.

The following is 100% true & written from my perspective, all actual names have been changed, including the street name.

At the end of 2011 my aunt asked me if I would stay with my cousin while she was in Florida for the winter and watch my cousins 4 young kids while she worked at night and I agreed to do so. My cousins boyfriend Jay (who was on house arrest) moved in with her in the middle of January, 2012.

At the time, I had been working at a company doing office type work for about 5 months. I worked for them through a temporary staffing agency. It was expected I would be hired on full time. They were impressed with me and the money was decent.

In late January my supervisor came to me and said that they were going to have to give my position to a full time employee who had recently returned to work from maternity leave. They reassured me they were trying to find something for me by the end of the week in a different department.

End of the week came, they still didn't find anything for me, so I was back to being unemployed. I was going to take this time to find something closer to where I lived as I was driving an hour to work one way.

The first Sunday of my employment I went to pick up my cousin (Tara) from work at 1:30 am, because her car was in the shop getting fixed. Shortly after we returned to her house she got the news that one of Jay’s brothers was killed at the club he went to that night. She looked at me and said "They killed Jay's brother, can we use your car?"

I had seen one of Jay's brothers over at the house a few times, but I didn't really know him well or anything. Without asking anything, I quickly handed over the keys to my car and they left.

The next morning was Monday, February 6th, 2012; my first official day of unemployment to be exact. I spoke with Tara briefly about the shooting; she confirmed it was Jay's brother Mickey that I had met a

few times.

Mickey was 19 years old when he died. He lived with his dad, just down the street from us. The night he was killed he was at a night club for a Super Bowl/Birthday Party when gunfire erupted . He was shot three

times and died on the scene. Three other people were shot, but Mickey was the only causality.

Tara told me that Jay was down the street at Mickey's, but his parole officer was coming over around 1 pm to speak with him about leaving the house the night before while on house arrest, etc. About 12:40 Tara said she was going to the store real quick to get a few things. She took my keys and left. A minute or so later she pulled back up in my car and hopped into the car with one of her friends, taking my keys with her.

I was home with Tara’s 4 year old daughter Monique. A few minutes after Tara left for the store I heard a gunshot. I instantly feared for Tara, so I called her cell phone.

She answered "Hello?"

"Did you hear that?"

"Yeah"

"It was a gunshot, right?"

"Yeah" a slight pause, she must have heard the fear in my voice "don't worry, they're probably just letting them off for Mickey"

To me shooting guns up in the air is irrational! I've learned the law of gravity, what goes up must come down. Maybe they were absent the day they taught that in school, I don't know, but it made sense that's what the gunshot was about, so I quickly dismissed it as a threat.

I had just sat down in the living room to straighten Monique's hair when I heard several more rounds of gunfire. This time I wasn't taking any chances, I locked the front door. A few minutes passed and all was quiet. I went back to straightening Monique's hair.

Next thing I hear is knocking at the front door. It's a little after 1 pm; I'm expecting Jay to come home as he has a meeting with his parole officer right about that time. I get up, and without looking I unlock and open the front door. As I sit back down on the couch, I turn to say "hey" to Jay, only to realize it’s not Jay standing there. Instead of Jay, there is a young man standing in front of me holding an AK-47!

It seemed as if all the air left the room. I started to shake in fear. I wasn't sure what to do. My mind started racing. I wanted to freak out, but I had a 4 year old who I needed to remain calm for. Maybe I watch too much TV, maybe I just wasn't thinking straight, I'm not sure what it was, but something made me sit down and start straightening Monique's hair again as if nothing was unusual about this.

The man with the gun asked "Where's Tara?" When I looked at him this time I could see he was bleeding from his nose. I kept thinking to myself, I'm supposed to be at work today! I should not even be here.

I wasn't sure if he was there to kill Tara or what he wanted with her, but I was almost glad she wasn't there.

"She’s not here."

"Where’s the phone?"

"Here" I handed him my cell phone.

He made a call; I assumed it was to Jay or someone down the street.

"I see how it is! Y'all just gonna straight shoot at me?" a pause, then "nawh, y'all were aiming at me. I see how it is, that's how we're playing it now huh?"

Then he asked me whose car was in the driveway.

"It’s mine"

"Can you take me over to the apartments down the street?"

My mind started racing, a million thoughts were running through my head all at the same time. Do I take him? What if I say no? Will that be the end of it? Will he just leave? What if he takes us hostage? Is he going to kill us?

At first I said I would take him, hoping that once I dropped him off wherever he wanted to go, that would be the end of it. Then I remembered Tara still had my keys. About this time the police showed up. They parked on the street between our house and the neighbor’s house.

The man with the gun advised me not to open the door. Then he said "Call Tara" and handed me back my phone.

I got up, grabbed Monique and took her into Tara's bedroom, and then I called her.

"Hello?"

"You need to get your ass back here now!"

"Why? What's going on?"

"I don't know! There is a man here with a gun and I've never seen him before in my life." I'm sure I sounded hysterical because, well quite honestly I was!

"Calm down, is he dark skinned or does he have braids?"

"He has braids"

The next words that came out of her mouth still amaze me to this day "oh, that's just Mark, let him in."

Did she miss the whole "he has a gun" part? "Just Mark", like I should be okay with a stranger coming into the house with a gun because she says he's okay. People take their own children hostage, and here I don't mean anything to this man because he doesn't know me. I'm sure he'd have no problem taking me and possibly Monique hostage.

"He’s already in the house and the police are outside"

"Well don't let them in" she replied.

I wasn't about to, because at this point I'm listening to the man in the house who has a gun. All I keep thinking was I needed to get me and this child out of the house safely.

"I'm not, but you need to get here now!"

"Calm the fuck down and let me talk to Mark" I hand him the phone. He walked out of the room. When he came back into the room he asked me if there were rooms downstairs. I told him yes and he went downstairs into the basement.

I heard rustling noises coming from downstairs. I assume he was trying to find a hiding spot for the gun. I thought about taking Monique and running out the front door, but I wasn't sure if I would be able to get out before he came back, so I decided to wait for a more opportune time to make an escape. I thought better to get out of this alive then shot in the back as I'm running away. I started to break down and cry, then I saw the face of the precious 4 year old in front of me and I knew I had to hold it together a little longer for her.

Mark came back up within a few minutes without the gun. He started asking me questions about the police. Where they were, did I see anyone out back, etc. He wanted me to check out front to see if the police were still there.

I grabbed Monique's hand and we went into one of the front bedrooms, Mark followed us. It was at about this time I hear the police say "This is your last chance to come out with your hands up". Last chance? I didn't hear them say anything before that, but maybe they did. What was going to happen if we didn't come out? Were they going to start shooting? Tear gas? I had no clue, but figured this was a perfect time to make my move. I felt a little safer challenging Mark at this time also as he didn't have the gun on him anymore, and at no point did he threaten either of us.

I looked him right in the eye and stated "I'm just going to take her and go" I then grabbed Monique's hand, asked for my cell phone back (I paid damn good money for my iPhone and I was unemployed now so I wasn't about to replace it lol). As I started to walk out the front door the only thing he said was "tell them I ran out the back".

When I opened the door I wasn't sure what to expect. Were the police going to be standing there guns drawn? Did they know there was a man in the house with a gun? Did they know I had a child with me? That we were innocent bystanders?

I slowly opened the door making sure to leave it unlocked. When I looked up I was not entirely prepared for what I saw. There were at least 10 police officers holding rifles, granted they were not aimed at us, and I knew they didn't mean us harm, but it was still a scary sight for me as an adult; that poor little 4 year old was petrified.

I put my left hand in the air and held on to Monique's hand with my right hand and cautiously made the descent down the front stairs.

Monique pulled back and said "No".

"It’s okay baby" I told her as I pulled her forward with me. Once we got to solid ground one of the police officers yelled "run, run, run". I started to run as fast as I could with a 4 year old hanging on.

We were quickly put in the back of one of the detectives SUV's. He pulled out a note pad and after asking the general identifying information questions he said "so, tell me what's going on". I really had no clue what was going on! I felt like I was in a movie.

I ran through the whole story with him, but left out the part where I let Mark use my phone and my conversation with Tara. The detective left and I breathed a sigh of relief that I was able to get us out of the house safely.

A few minutes later the detective came back. "Something just doesn't add up here" he stated.

I was in udder shock! What do you mean? What doesn't add up? Are you kidding me? "What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well you came out of the house awfully calm"

I wish I had a picture of the look on my face when he said that. I let all of the stress of that day out on that poor detective.

"Are you kidding me? There is a man in that house who I've never seen before in my life! I'm trying to not be a hostage in the house. Y'all are saying "This is your last chance to come out" I have no idea what you guys are planning next, I'm trying to come out without getting shot and I have a 4 year old I need to remain calm for." I'm sure I was more than a little frantic in my explanation.

He simply said "Sorry if I offended you, everyone reacts differently in these type of situations." and walked away.

I started to tear up again. Then realized there was no just cause, I was safe, and Monique was safe, at that moment that was all that mattered.

The detective came back and asked if there was a dog in the house. There was; a blue pit bull. She was the sweetest dog, but I was worried about her because she was a pit. I didn't want them to harm her for that reason alone.

“She doesn’t bite” I said trying to reassure the detective.

“I got bit by the dog of the last person who told me that.” He left again.

Monique had to use the bathroom, so I flagged the detective over & he said to see if a neighbor was home or take her behind a bush. I opted to see if a neighbor was home first. I took her two houses down

and the neighbors were nice enough to let us use their bathroom.

After we were done we started to walk back outside and the neighbors let us stay there instead of sitting in the back of the detectives SUV.

The grandson, who was in his 30's told me he was outside when he heard the shooting and ran to the street to see what was going on. His mom asked him to check the mail while he was down there lol If you don't know where I'm from you wouldn't understand, it's just crazy here and this stuff happens far too often, just not quite on this scale.

He said as he was checking the mail Mark walked by trying to hide the gun in his coat as he walked down the street to our house.

Mark looked at him and said "they're crazy down there" and continued on.

I filled them in on my story as we waited for the police to leave. At various points there was lots of commotion, police cars coming and going. We saw them bring in the dogs, and what looked to be a SWAT team arrived. It was shortly after that, that we saw them take Mark into custody. He had been held up in the house for a few hours. Even after the police took Mark into custody I was not able to go back into the house right away.

I wasn’t sure where Tara was, and worse, I did know if she knew we were okay and I wasn’t able to call her because my cell phone had died.

I watched the news with the neighbors. The news crew was down the street, they didn’t have a good view of our house, but they did Mickey’s house. The on location news woman kept getting the street name wrong, calling it a road, or street, but it’s actually a court; not sure why this irritated me, but it did. I wanted to scream at her COURT, it’s Cranberry COURT, not street or road, but court! I didn’t say anything out loud, but instead kept my frustration at something so trivial to myself. I knew it was just from the stress of the days events.

At one point I walked outside to see if the police had left the house and I noticed they were searching my car, pulling out boxes from my move from state to state almost a year ago. I had them in storage for a while, but was trying to get it cleaned out so I could get rid of that bill. What were they doing opening my boxes?

“I hope you plan on putting all that shit back where you got it from!” I am not normally so rude with people I perceive to be in authority; however I was stressed beyond my limit. I had not eaten since early that morning and it was close to 6 pm. I was cold, hungry and just wanted to be in my house.

“Is this your car?” one of the officers said.

“Yes”

“Come over here…” as I started walking over there he continued “You don’t mind if we search your car do you?”

“No, I have nothing to hide.”

“Here sign this warrant, giving us permission to search.”

Now, had I been thinking, I would not have signed it, as they were already searching my car, on who’s authority did they start searching my car? It sure wasn’t mine, but again, I wasn’t thinking straight and I really didn’t have anything to hide.

I noticed they were opening up taped up boxes. “What are you looking for?”

“The gun.” Slight pause “You stated he took it into the house with him?”

“Yes, and it was a large rifle, it’s not going to fit into one of those boxes.” I felt violated, again not that I had anything to hide,

but seriously how is anyone going to hide a rifle in boxes that are still taped up?

“So, you didn’t find the gun?” I asked.

“No”

That concerned me. I wasn’t sure what the situation was on anyone, if Mark was going to get out that night, and if he did, was he going to come back to get his gun. What then? Was he going to kill me for the little information I did provide to the police? What actually happened down the street in the first place? To this day I still don’t have all of the answers and I'm completely okay with that. I don't want to know the little I do know, but that information will never leave my lips.

They told me I could sit in my car and in a few minutes they would let us back into the house. Once they gave the all clear to go back into the house, I suddenly got worried that I was going to walk into the house and see a dead dog.

“Is the dog okay?” I asked.

“Yes, she’s hiding behind the couch.” A smile grew on my face as if to say “I told you she was a big baby!”

I took Monique’s hand and walked into the house. I didn’t even have time to give out a sigh of relief when Tara’s friend Jamie walked in.

“Come on we’ve gotta go get Tara.”

“What? Where’s she at?”

“The police station.”

My mind started on a whirlwind again. Why is she at the police station? Did she get arrested? If so, what for? I just wanted to scream "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!" but I remained calm “Why is she at the police station?”

"She had to pick up the kids." That just confused me even more! Why were the kids at the police station? They were supposed to be at an after school program until 7 pm and it wasn't quite time to pick them up yet.

"Why are the kids at the police station though?"

"Because they were all over and she is picking them up and dropping them off to the social worker until their dad comes to get them. She can't keep them; she's not signed off as a guardian"

I was even more confused than before I started asking questions. Why were they all over? Why weren't they still at school? Why weren't they all together wherever they were? Why did Tara have to sign them over to their dads? Wait, she said dad... There is more than one father for my cousins 4 kids. Who exactly is coming to get the kids?

My brain couldn't process any more information and it seemed as all new information led to more questions than it answered.

We arrived at the police station, but Tara wasn't there yet. We waited for about twenty minutes, and then I decided to call. I was tired, hungry and about to run out of gas.

She arrived as I was talking to her on the phone. She didn't have her kids with her. We talked a little about the events that took place earlier in the day. I couldn't believe how excited she was that the police had not found the gun. I was in shock!

She asked me to go pick up her kids from school and come back to the police station to pick her up. The kids are at school? I didn't ask any questions. As I has quickly learned, any questions asked just confused me more! I just went and picked them up. Jamie stayed with Tara.

The kids told us the school was on lock down earlier that day, I of course knew why but I didn't say anything. I wasn't sure how much their mom wanted to tell them, and I didn't feel it was my place to be the first to say anything.

We arrived back at the police station, picked up Tara and Jamie, and then I took Tara to get her car which was at her work. I took the kids home while Tara and Jamie went to go pick up some fast food.

When the kids and I arrived home there was a lone police officer walking around looking in the ditches and on the ground. I don't like to swear, especially in front of kids, but I couldn't take it anymore. The words were out of my mouth faster than I thought them.

"Jesus fucking Christ! What the fuck do they want now?" I pulled into the driveway and told the kids to go inside.

The police officer started walking towards me. "Who was here today?"

"I was"

"Did you see the gun?" I ran down the day’s events at the house for him.

"So he had the gun in the house?"

"Yes"

"Do you mind if I come in and look around again?"

"Not at all" I said without hesitation. There were two reasons for this. One I did not want to stay in that house knowing the gun was still in there and two, Tara had already given the police permission to search the house earlier that day and I already looked guilty because I "came out of the house to calm".

He came in and went straight downstairs. I quickly texted Tara and told her the police were there.

"Don’t answer any questions" was the text I received back.

"They aren't asking anything, they are searching" I texted back.

I then went down stairs to evaluate the damage, and start a load of laundry so the kids had clothes to wear to school the next day. The police officer was looking around.

"Did you look up there?" I asked as I pointed to the ceiling on the unfinished part of the basement. On that side of the basement there were small uniform holes towards the ceiling. It's exactly where I would have hid a gun if I wanted to hide one. I would have thrown it so far back they would have had to tear apart the ceiling in the play area in order to retrieve it.

"I don't know... Get me a chair" he said. As I walked away to get a chair he said "never mind" apparently he had found a chair or something to stand on.

A little while later I went back down to check the laundry and he was still looking where I suggested. As I was about to leave I asked him if he had had any luck.

"I did find a magazine" to which I laughed thinking of a teenage boy hiding his latest copy of playboy from his mom. The police officer continued "so the gun must be around here somewhere".

"OH! You mean magazine for the gun?"

"Yeah"

"See, that's not my world, I don't even think like that."

I walked back upstairs and shortly thereafter Tara and Jamie walked in with the fast food. They were both visibly upset. I knew it was because of the police being back in the house.

Tara glared at me. "Why did you let them back in the house?"

"What was I supposed to do? Say no?"

"Yes! They were already in the house. Once they left they had no right to come back in."

I didn't say anything, but wished I would have gone to get food and she was the one to go home and find a cop there. I bet she would have let him come in and look too. Difference is she wouldn't have told him where to look.

The officer came upstairs. "I found the gun. I'm going to ask that you all stay up here so I can safely remove the gun from the premises."

Jamie and Tara started cursing and carrying on after he went back downstairs. I was relieved.

After the police officer left there was so much discussion about what went on down the street. I don't know how much of it is true. At one point Tara and I started arguing because I asked her if I was safe staying there and instead of reassuring me she started yelling at me.

"If you don't feel safe here you're free to go. Do you think I'd have my kids here if I didn't think it was safe?"

She really knew more about these people than I did. All I wanted was to be assured that someone wasn't going to come in and shoot me in my sleep, on this... My first day of unemployment.

As I lay in bed trying to calm myself enough to doze off, even for a few I thought "I survived! I wonder what's in store for me tomorrow, my second day of unemployment."

Needless to say I moved out of there as fast as I could and stayed with my dad for a few weeks before I was able to get my own place. I talked to my cousin once after I left that house and that was only because she was still on some BS and her cell phone was on my plan. I hopped on line blocked all incoming and out going messages to that phone, and went down to the Sprint store ASAP! Instead of paying to have the phone line removed from my contract I replaced the phone, changed the number and gave my daughter the line.