A VIVID Awakening: Very glad to be alive

[JD Spydo]

Hey Joe,

I'll pray for you my friend. You've always been a great guy here on the forums and I am glad you are still here. Seriously.

Be careful out there man. Times are tough. Stuff does get worse when times are tough.

I'm sorry you have had to sleep in your truck man. Actually I'll email you about that later. It's been a while since we've chatted.

God Bless you brother.

Thank you very much David for the extremely kind and encouraging words :) .
I covet your prayers and everyone else's at this time. I never in my worst nightmares ever thought I would end up homeless like I am now. Even though I have a couple of good job prospects on the horizon I'm still trying to figure how it got this bad this quickly.

And please everyone don't think for a second that I'm trying to project myself as a brave, Mike Tyson-like bad *** because that truly wasn't the case. I truly believe my fear transpired into rage because deep in my heart I pretty much figured it to be the end of the road. I truly believe that allowing myself to go ballistic probably did save me and I'm sure it caught them by surprise. But I have told myself that I won't go down without some type of resistance no matter what I'm faced with. My only regret is that I didn't at least do serious harm to at least one of them. I'm sure these extremely cowardly scumbirds will soon try their evil on some other victim unaware.

Once this bad situation I'm in passes I will always have a heart for the homeless. I've been equiped and somewhat prepared for bad times for years now. But I'm also discovering that no one can ever be completely prepared for such an event. I'm seeing the best of people and the worst of people at the same time. Most people never get an education like the one I'm getting now. I truly believe that Cold Steel Gurkha Kukri is the only reason I'm alive and well this very day topped off with divine protection from GOD. I also give GOD above the main credit because I do indeed believe him and his angels were indeed on my side at that time.

But any future advice any of you guys and gals could give I will sure study it well. I also believe all the knife and survival magazines I read over the years truly gave me a foundation for be able to act pro-actively. We can all learn from tragedies and we should do everything to be ready. Thank you all for the wonderful encouraging words :)

[wec12]

I am really glad you're okay, JD. Be safe and be prepared, ok?

[gac]

Glad to hear you are alive and well. I have a higher respect for Cold Steel products now.

[Doc Pyres]

Wow, what a shocking story. I'm very glad you got out of it with relatively little injury, JD. And I pray that your situation will improve soon.

[araneae]

I'm glad you made it out relatively unscathed and I hope your situation improves very soon. Take care of yourself.

[defenestrate]

INdeed JD. I know the area well, at least the KS side, and your location ID says GRain Valley which was why I suggested the lakes I did. If you are looking to move rural, PM me and I will pass along a place to look at on the KS side. (I'm from Larrytown originally, back when it was a decent place to grow up).

MW

I have relatives in Lee's summit and St. Louis, and I'm sure they'd be willing to help out a friend of mine as well.

[Zenith]

Man that Sucks! I went through a simmiler thing not long ago (I complied and was mugged but am alive). At the end you are alive and that is all that matters! Nothing anyone can say can make you think other wise. YOU ARE ALIVE AND THAT IS ALL THAT MATTERS!

Prayers sent for you!

[4 s ter]

Joe

I'm sorry to hear that you're going through this.

I hope you can stay safe and healthy.

You have my best wishes - I wish I could do more!

[spyderHS08]

Dang man, Im sorry about that! Glad to hear that you are both okay though. Thats definately an eye opener that no one wants to experience.

[SmoothOne25]

never fight. if you make some street person or a crack head panic, they WILL shoot, just out of fear. or impaired judgment. i had a friend years ago shot in his stomach. he tried to buy marijuana in a very rough area near his house. he is young, white, rich kid, in a new bmw driving into the ghetto to buy weed...? those people saw his dumb *** coming a mile away. circling the neighborhood he finally got some crack heads attention and the guy said "yeah sure i can get you some weed" "its around the corner" and so he got in the car and had my friend drive to a nice dark area in front of a house and out came the gun. car, cell, wallet, watch etc NOW! his instant reaction was "im a big guy, im going to fight. he wont shoot me! ill be fine" and grabbed at the guy and the gun and ultimately got shot and had perforated ear drums and powder burns and got shot from one of the two bullets discharged. the guy rummaged around for like 30 seconds and left with his radar detector and cell. he should have just got out and left and walked to another car or pay phone. but he wanted to fight, thinking that he wouldn't get hurt. ALWAYS obey, NEVER fight. you dont know how crazy some one is. or if he just killed some other guy and wouldnt care to take another life at that point. im glad your ok but i disagree with your actions. two on one? with a gun? you should have given him your money and said "ok ok take it and leave. im not being hostile. take the money!" like he said above, you life is number one. everything else you can get it back.

anyway im glad your ok though. hope everyhitng works out well.

obviously this is a different situation. it was my friends fault, he created the situation he was involved in. if you dont try to break the law or buy drugs, you wont get into situations like the one i mentioned. i dont advocate his actions. dont break the law, any law.

[JD Spydo]

Smoothone25 I do appreciate your advice. Although I do disagree with it from my personal standpoint. With all due respect to your comment my situation was entirely different than your friend's situation was. Your friend had obviously put himself in a very dire situation out of pure stupidity as you pointed out. Whereas these depraved cowards just happened on to me not knowing one thing about me or my friend. They didn't even know that I had a friend sleeping in the van next to me. All that being said I feel I had at least a couple of cards to play.

First of all I only had about $3 on my person at that time which I believe would have just ticked them off and made them want to brutalize and possibly murder me so they wouldn't have a witness. All of this was going through my head at light-speed and I had a decision to make in a very short period of time ( around 5 seconds at best). Given what I was faced with I was sure they wouldn't be satisified with a paltry amount of change and would probably beat me up or kill me so they could loot my entire contents of my truck.

I do know in my heart that Almighty GOD truly guided me through the entire ordeal and that I personally did the only thing I could do. I also believe had I cooperated with these scumbirds it would have only gotten worse and probably cost me my life. That's my gut level feeling and that's why I did what I did. I truly believe the element of surprise worked in my favor tremendously and I also believe that was the last thing they expected was for one guy to try to take on both of them. But I proved 2 things: #1 they were obviously cowards of the lowest degree>> #2 they didn't have the guts to fight someone that was willing to take a stand. I sincerely believe the choice I made at that time with those criminals was the only choice I had to come out of the situation with as little harm as I did.

I also believe that the courage I was able to muster was given to me by GOD and his angels and I ultimately give them all the credit.

Smoothone25 I think you are right with that method in many instances but in my case I believe I exercised the ONLY OPTION I HAD. But I do appreciate hearing your advice and it never hurts to at least consider someone elses input. GOD Bless you and yours Sir and I hope your friend fully recovers.

[Jazz]

Glad you're okay, JD. With all the crackheads in the world, we never know what to expect. Take care.

- best wishes, Jazz.

[SmoothOne25]

i understand and appreciate what your trying to tell me but i think my story caused you to miss my point. or maybe i didn't elaborate.
2 on 1. they have a gun. your friend is asleep, in a a van. when you reacted you forced him to make a split decision too. im sure you or i would never do such actions, but lets say the roles were reversed. (i know i know) but if you were robbing someone with a gun and he reacted by coming at you with a sharp deadly knife you would react and shoot. "this man is about to stab me in the face with a large knife" now maybe it was fake and that's why this didn't escalate or maybe no one ever stood up to his gun before and he just couldn't understand why you didn't summit like most people when guns are drawn. all im saying is you took a big chance (i still disagree with it) by not calmly sumitting to them. just hand them whatever you got, even if its 3 dollars. a phone, a wallet. some appeasement and make nice and have them leave feeling powerful and relaxed that they got away with it and then run to a phone/buddy and dial 911. im just talking safety. i realize in some cases self defense is extremely important and means life or death. but i dont believe being mugged, even at gunpoint is a reason to attack some one with a knife. it will just make the situation escalate. im not going to force myself to maybe take a life over the loss of property. for me, knife self defense, is someone truly about to take my life, not my property. now maybe you felt that. i dont know. i wasn't there and shouldn't have jumped at you like that. after all how could i know what it was like? i apologize if what i said sounded disrespectful. i just should have said, "imo "I" wouldn't have done that and wouldnt react to the same situation like that", should i ever be put in a situation as such. i do agree you have a right to safeguard and protect property, as well as your life. but i still think escalating it with so many unknown factors was dangerous. for real, maybe he was off his schizo meds. angering a man with a chemical imbalance or a crack head is potentially lethal. who knows?
anyway - again, no harm.. i just hate to hear about such stories. im sorry it happened. i know its truly hard to have to endure something like that. and now because of your situation, things will be potentially even more stressing. paranoia about it and such. always on guard when sleeping on the street. i hope everything works out well. maybe they will be arrested somehow. 2 scumbags off the street. best of luck. be careful.

[skcusloa]

woah....

sleeping in a vehicle is NOT fun

They're obviously idiots for trying to rob someone who is down on their luck. Either their gun wasn't real, broken, or it didn't have any bullets, or they though you'd turn into the hulk if they shot you. You'd be surprised how far a little crazy will go. I bet if you made contact one of them would have probably lost limb function for the rest of their lives.

I've always told myself that I will not be a victim. I'm not very big, but for some reason people go out of their way to avoid me. I guess I got some crazy eyes or something. I haven't been in a fight since the 5th grade. I walk around in the middle of the night all the time (helps me sleep) and if someone else is walking and they see me they immediatly go across the street. I'm only 6ft 180 lbs.

[JD Spydo]

i understand and appreciate what your trying to tell me but i think my story caused you to miss my point. or maybe i didn't elaborate.

anyway - again, no harm.. i just hate to hear about such stories. im sorry it happened. i know its truly hard to have to endure something like that. and now because of your situation, things will be potentially even more stressing. paranoia about it and such. always on guard when sleeping on the street. i hope everything works out well. maybe they will be arrested somehow. 2 scumbags off the street. best of luck. be careful.

Hey Smoothone25 please don't misunderstand me. Because I'm in no way trying to be disagreeable per se or argumentative with you. I'm sure you mean very well by everything you said. And believe me I do agree that in certain situations that might be the right ticket. But in my situation and the super hateful looks these guys gave me I thought for sure my life was over irrespective of what I might have tried to do to appease them. I can tell by a person's body language and the way they talk that these 2 guys were extremely evil people. They might have been amatuers at their trade of criminality but they were 2 very wicked people and I picked up on it immediately. I believe with all my heart that what I did was truly my only option. And let me tell you I am not a violent person by nature. I haven't been in a serious fight since I was in my late 20s. I was also fearful of what might have happened to my lifelong friend I was camping with who is a serious heart patient. But he showed utmost bravery when he realized what was going on.
The Doctors that put my thumb back together said I might have no feeling in it for some time to come but they said I should have full function with it in about a month to 45 days. That creep really cut it deep. I was so adrenaline charged I didn't even know it was cut until my friend saw I was bleeding like a freshly slaughtered chicken. And I didn't even feel it until I got to the hospital. And I'm sure he would have done much more damage to me had I not retaliated.
Every crime and every situation is different. And your advice is not bad advice at all. But I'm just saying I'm 100% sure I did the only thing I could do at the time. I immediately resigned myself that I was going to get shot but I was hoping for the best out of a grim situation. Again I give GOD the credit because I sincerely feel that he helped me to have the courage to make a split second decision.
And I'm in no way giving advice to anyone who might be in a similar situation. Because it may not work for the next guy . But it kept me out of the morgue for the time being and I thank GOD for it.
I have learned that being prepared is a huge help. Had I not had that Gurkha Knife it might have been curtains for me. It does give you the creeps knowing that there are many people out there even worse that these 2 crud-dudds. It has been an incredibly humbling experience I wouldn't wish on anyone. GOD help us all

[tonydahose]

i think JD did what he thought he had to do in the split second or so that he had to think out the situation. i have personally pulled the crazy guy routine in Amsterdam at 4am when 2 guys were going to jump me, it worked for me. Many bad guys just want to rob people who are sheep. no trouble and they get what they wanted. You throw a monkey wrench into the scene and it can go one of 2 ways usually. thankfully it went the way it did and JD was able to still tell us all about it, even if it is with one handed typing for now :p . i hate monday morning quarterbacking, unless you were the one there you cant say what would be the right way/better way to handle the situation. no offense meant to anyone on here, that is just my opinion as someone who has to make quick decisions on a regular basis. i hope you are healing quickly JD and that you find youself in a better situation soon so you can sleep in a nice comfy bed.

[JD Spydo]

Thank you for the kind and wise words Tony :) You said it all so eloquently because every situation is different from many standpoints. I'm sure had it been 2 extremely hardened members of organized crime gangs I would probably be dead right now. But with that said I would have probably been dead no matter what I would have done in a situation that dire. Fortunately for me these guys were probably just young punks who I'm sure were illegal aliens who really couldn't speak english well at all who wanted someone to be a sheep and rob them with little or no incident. But really who knows for sure :confused: . ???

I haven't had any solid sleep since then and may not for a while. But I'm doing well for the most part and I'm extremely thankful for that. I'm sure our brave men and women who are overseas now fighting these wars were engaged in are dealing with nervewrenching crap on a daily basis with little or no break in the action. My heart truly goes out to them. This experience has truly made me more compassionate toward anyone in bad situations. And it's made me extremely thankful even for the little things I've in the past taken for granted. Because now I see just how easy it can all be taken away in an instant. GOD help us all

[v8r]

JD I believe you made the right choice.When someone is pointing a gun at you, they have just crossed that line of putting your life in danger.This to me is time deadly force is warranted. You weren't acting out of line, it is called survival.Everyone always wants to sit back in a armchair and analyze a situation to death after the smoke clears, but I commend you my friend for choosing to not be a victim. Maybe it's time to invest in some sort of firearm and some training when you can afford it if needed.A Taurus Judge with some #4 bird shot in the face would have probably chewed that guy up.
I also learned that a man is most dangerous when he has nothing to lose.That man up stairs is watching out for you,so chose what you do with the rest of your life very carefully.Be well.

[amar]

Glad to hear that you are safe bro, and I hope for a speedy recovery. The rot has set in everywhere, and it always pays to be safe than sorry. Good luck.

-Amarendra

[JaM]

Wow, JD, glad to see that you're still okay and in 1 piece !
Hope everything works out for you.
Best wishes and all that,

Jan