Unsurprising News from Gary, IN

This should infuriate anyone. In a way, it fills me with rage, but in another way, I am not surprised. It did happen, after all, in Gary, Indiana:

A woman who was robbed at knifepoint while pumping gas into her church's van couldn't believe it when the gas station attendant refused to call police for help.

'I ran, of course, to the nearest place,' Gary resident Rosetta Heffner said, recounting Sunday's robbery.

Her request to call 911 was met with silence from the other side of the Citgo station's counter.

She tried again.

The clerk's response?

'Use your cell phone.'

Heffner couldn't believe it.

'I thought it would be a safe haven, anything could have happened, and he told me to use my cell phone,' Heffner told the Post-Tribune of Merrillville.
The gas station's manager said he was sorry about the robbery, but clerks at the station do not make emergency calls from the front counter, fearing retaliation for [sic] criminals.

'We have to be careful,' he said. 'If we call, then there are problems. They can hear. So we use the back phone. We are always helpful to the customer, but we have to protect ourselves.'

When I was a truck driver, I had the extreme misfortune to pass through that godforsaken hellhole a few times, and the place is like a roadside outhouse for criminals to gather. We all hear about crime problems in Chicago, well, Gary is the evil bastard son of Chicago. I have had the opportunity to speak with several people who live in the area, and when I ask them if they'd ever been to Gary, their answer is usually something like "Hell no, I'm not stupid."

The church which this lady attends has stated that they will take their business elsewhere from now on. Good for them. I have no doubt that they are vastly outnumbered by the sub-human scum who have taken over that town, and who will now gladly frequent this Citgo station which has now effectively advertised itself as a safe haven for criminals.

By the way, I have no way of knowing which Citgo station this is. There are twelve such stations listed in Yahoo Yellow Pages. My guess is, it's the one at 2993 W 11th Ave., based on its proximity to the church.

If I were them, I'd boycott them all.

UPDATE: David Codrea has typed up a letter and provided contact information for anyone wanting to notify Citgo of their displeasure over this incident.