That vet who stopped convenience store robbery
Everyone and his grandmother has been sending us this video of Jon L. Alexander, a 54-year-old veteran in Missouri who allegedly stared down a gunman in his convenience store.
But, he claims that he has 30 years of military service at a “high risk” job, and did 4 tours in Iraq, so that made me suspicious. His “high risk” job was at the 459th Transportation Company, and I know that if he rode convoys it could probably be classified as “high risk” and I don’t want to take that away from him. But the 459th only did two tours of Iraq (not the four Alexander claims) and it looks like they did OIF I from Kuwait, which doesn’t mean that they didn’t convoy into Iraq, but OIF I was different than OIF II in that regard – at least that’s what you guys told me. The Center For Military History shows the 459th Trans Co. was activated twice during the war on terror.
Also, the video looks staged. Who says “give me all your money” without showing the gun first? And who lets the criminal back away still carrying his gun? I may be wrong, but that’s just my impression.
We’re checking on Alexander’s records, and I hope I’m wrong about everything, but call me skeptical – that’s why it might seem that I’m ignoring your emails.
Category: Who knows
The wash water could be really dirty on this one.
Video looks kind of fishy to me. It doesn’t really look like surveillance camera video–it’s kind of shaking around like a hand-held camera. Maybe I’m wrong, but it doesn’t look quite right to me.
Surveillance videos are usually black and white. Usually, not always.
And the camera is placed in a fixed postion with a wide enough angle to get the entire surroundings. Also, it doesn’t jiggle unless the thing it’s mounted on (the wall) moves, as in an earthquake. Last, the framing is full-frame horizontal, not vertical.
It looks staged and phony to me.
Hayabusa, It is shaking because someone is videotaping a computer that is showing the video. The video is fishy to me because the “robber’s” and the “veteran’s” movements are way too diliberat.
ughhhh, deliberate not diliberat.
Also, the ‘store’ looks like someone’s basement.
I think a reasonable and prudent person, under similar circumstances, would have emptied that sidearm right into douchey mcfuckstick’s fucking face, vice merely point it at him.
He could have been an individual augment to other units for the other 2 tours. (I doubt it, but I have heard of it happening.)
The timing looks off. Why didn’t the “robber” struggle when the clerk grabbed his arm?
I would think my finger would have been squeezing the trigger as I brough mine up to his chin..
That said, who knows at this point. I have seen a lot of surveillance videos of robberies over the years and none of them look the same. Cannot tell for sure when the robber said anything, no volume so who is to say he said give me your money before or after the handgun started coming out.
I am not passing judgment until more facts are known on the who/what/where/ and when.
Though his bio sounds off….
Give me some of your…”CUT!”
Me give some…”CUT! Dammit.”
Give me all of your…um…shit. “CUT! Last time, moron!”
Give me all of your money!…”That’s a wrap.”
I know a lot of guys who have deployed in Missouri with a couple different units in the same state. I have one friend who has deployed with the 203rd ENBN twice, 1140th, and the 110th before it changed. It is entirely possible. If you are running convoy escorts yep that shit isn’t fun.
According to the store owner the robbery was legitimate and the police were investigating it. Still, his bio sounds fishy…
http://www.news-leader.com/article/20130903/NEWS01/309040042/-1/7daysarchives/Store-owner-Gun-carrying-clerk-an-exception?nclick_check=1
Something is weird….any surveillance video I’ve ever seen where a clerk pulls a sidearm has the perp diving under the counter whilst soiling themselves. But on the other side of the coin, who would “play the part of the perp” for a buddy knowing full well he was going to be on camera and have the police look for him?
Well, if the police haven’t found him yet–three days later–they aren’t trying. Dollars to donuts, the guy is a drunk. He is also very stupid. You either enter and go directly to the register or you pick up a few things and while the clerk’s hands are busy ringing the stuff up, you then do your thing. This is Robbery 101. So, either the guy flunked the course and he’s too stupid not to be caught quickly, or it was staged. We’ll see–if anyone follows up on this. If not, I can live w/o knowing.
I’m not a video or a security camera expert by any stretch but shaking, zooming and panning by a security camera, apparently choreographed moves. Unless proven otherwise, IMHO BS big time.
@15, all the movment is because it is someone recording the video as it is playing on a monitor. The actual video contains no panning or zooming and is all shot from the same angle and distance.
Utterly disagree with the clerk’s actions. Utterly.
Ever heard the phrase “a little training will get you killed”? Well, here ya go, that the clerk is still sucking air is due to luck, certainly not skill.
Why in the world would you put your firearm right into someone’s work space and why would you fail to neutralize the bad guys weapon? That’s just begging for the bad guy to grab your pistol and let you hold everything he has in his revolver.
Somebody out there is going to imitate this clown and get hurt. The four count draw, count two/three is there for a reason
SHAI DORSAI!!!
It should have been: “Give me the fukn’ money”. POW,POW,POW. Thud. POW,POW. The operative term is “Give me the Fukn’ money. Just because the thugs gun is not pointed at you does not mean that it won’t be. In the words of Paladin, “This gun was hand crafted to my specifications, I rarely draw it unless I intend to use it”.
Hahahahah,as if,it would have been more realistic if it was a black dude doing the robbery.
The part that didn’t look right to ME was that the vet didn’t pull the trigger.
… or, what Roger said.
…same questions I was asking when I saw it on FB yesterday. The “robber” was still a threat as he backed away…but I wasn’t there.
The Vet went home alive, I guess that’s all that counts.
It looks to me like there’s someone making a video of the surveillance video playing on a screen, that’s why there’s some zooming. You can see the pause/play/rewind buttons on the screen.
His explanation for not shooting was that the barrel of the gun wasn’t pointed at him.
I sure hope he isn’t lying about his service. I’m getting really tired of the disappointment.
To all those who are calling “fake” because of the panning and tilting in the video… your observational skills are piss poor.
This was on Fox this AM and they just said that he was a vet, nothing more specific than that. They also showed the store camera footage and it looked like pretty much all the other store footage you see on the knightly newts. *shrug*
@26.
On the version I heard, they introduced him as an “Air Force and Army veteran.” That was just before the live interview, during the 6 AM hour (Eastern time). I paid attention for once because I’d read this blog post yesterday and wanted to hear what he had to say.
I find the 30 years part a bit hard to believe, but I could see someone who did some time in the Air Force, then moving to the Army Reserve being able to do four tours. Especially as the Air Force tours seem to be rather short. When I was on my (15 month) tour in Iraq, we had airmen on our FOB who had done a tour while we were there, redeployed, and were back for their second tour before we left.
The picture in the newspaper article shows him as an E-5 in coffee stain DCUs and a beret, so it was most likely taken during OIF. If so, and if he was in the Air Force before joining the Army Reserve, I’d say four tours is quite possible–but, again, not 30 years.
A video of a video….which is kinda funky in the first place.
Well, Missouri is the “Show Me” state, so I guess I’ll just take that tact as well. Bullshit until proven otherwise….
Don H: 30 years is possible based on his age and the fact that he apparently finished his career in the Reserve Components (the 459th Trans Co is a USAR unit). If he was a drilling reservist, he could have stayed at a particular rank for quite a while – the Reserve Components don’t have the same RCPs and “up or out” policies as the active side of the house (or at least they didn’t used to – they may have instituted some of that recently).
He’s 54 today. If he retired fairly recently, he could even have a break in service and still have time to serve 30 years total.
Not saying that’s the case, but it’s not ruled out by what’s known about the guy.
Hondo, you’re right.
Don H: not tryin’ to bust yer chops, amigo. But with literally millions of vets out there, there will be some legitimate “corner cases” and unusual careers that sound funny but turn out to be true. This guy may or may not be one of them. At this point, we just don’t know for sure.
Hopefully we’ll know soon.
Hey I’m with Brown Walter in the facebook comments, finding a really good spell caster is a difficult task…I’m not sure what the h3ll a great ezemu priest is, but I’m glad Brown Walter was able to reconcile with his wife after using the magic services….
What the h3ll is going on today? Has everyone lost their f@#king minds?
I’m not saying I pull a gun on people often but on the couple times that I have had the occasion to, I have not “showed” the gun and then immediately put it behind my back. It looked more to me like they were playing peek a boo instead of a robbery in progress. I also will not pretend to know how someone else thinks feels and behaves in a situation like that. I just don’t think we’ve heard all there is to this yet. Something is smelling a little fishy and it ain’t me.
lying slurpee drinking turd….