So, some stuff happened today
Lot's of stuff happening in the city here. Our building is falling apart due to all the rain and shit coming in through the roof and the movie theatre had smoke in it on Saturday, for a couple things. For another there was a dude here who worked at one of the Starbucks with an amazing voice, I guess. I never heard it because I never went to that drive thru but from what I gather people would go to that location just to hear him speak. We even did a story on him.
Sound weird? Yeah, just wait.
Dude was a former Marine who came up here for... I don't know, shits & giggles? At some point he returned to the States and I guess went to St. Louis. Last week he robbed a fucking bank and shot himself.
Yeah. So.
I thought that was the weirdest story I'd hear in a while.
Saturday there was a standoff that ended at some point while the group of us were meeting for our union pizza & beer night. Fine and dandy. Had a couple reporters show up late who'd been covering it and the press conference after. It ended with the suspect shot by an officer.
There were vague reports of a missing persons report from Friday but no one really knew if they were connected at all.
Turns out they were.
Went to work this morning and one of the sales reps told me the missing person was a customer of ours, a guy who I have gotten to know and have grown to love in my own special service provider/client way. He would send us flowers and chocolates, sold us his living room suite for our break room and was very distraught when we told him it didn't have to be cleaned when he insisted, told me 'love you' when he'd hang up the phone. Gave great hugs.
He was missing and connected to the stand off and shooting. No one knew if they were one in the same person or whether he was still missing, who the guy was- nothing.
The sales rep had the inside scoop because she's close friends with one of her clients who own a car lot and they were hosting some of the used cars my customer had for sale. Dude had retired a couple years ago from his own Uhaul/car business but instead of getting a hobby he just started buying one or two cars and selling them.
Shortly before lunch word came that he was dead. That the person killed in the standoff killed him, or was part of a group that killed him. Beat him to death, likely for money and/or revenge.
My customer wasn't a small, frail guy. He was in his 70s but he was TALL and barrel chested, very solid. I can't imagine what he went through.
He was found in a field. Alone.
There are more details about this story but some of them are things that haven't been released yet, some of them are just speculation (I think) and things are starting to blend together.
I'm gutted. I've been dealing with this guy for years. Hell, I talked to him last week. He'd been dry for a couple weeks at that point and I was so proud of him because he's struggled with alcoholism and being on & off the wagon for a long time. This is a guy who cried for weeks over his dog passing away and, as a result of wanting to remember him, started a city-wide argument about us putting animal obits/remembrances on the same page as the people obits.
If he had it to give you he'd hand you the moon if you asked.
I didn't know him as well as others but it doesn't change that I'm incredibly saddened by this whole thing. No one deserves such a death and I hope if there are other people involved that they live long, miserable, drawn-out lives behind bars and knowing they had a hand in this.
Rest in peace, Chester.
Sound weird? Yeah, just wait.
Dude was a former Marine who came up here for... I don't know, shits & giggles? At some point he returned to the States and I guess went to St. Louis. Last week he robbed a fucking bank and shot himself.
Yeah. So.
I thought that was the weirdest story I'd hear in a while.
Saturday there was a standoff that ended at some point while the group of us were meeting for our union pizza & beer night. Fine and dandy. Had a couple reporters show up late who'd been covering it and the press conference after. It ended with the suspect shot by an officer.
There were vague reports of a missing persons report from Friday but no one really knew if they were connected at all.
Turns out they were.
Went to work this morning and one of the sales reps told me the missing person was a customer of ours, a guy who I have gotten to know and have grown to love in my own special service provider/client way. He would send us flowers and chocolates, sold us his living room suite for our break room and was very distraught when we told him it didn't have to be cleaned when he insisted, told me 'love you' when he'd hang up the phone. Gave great hugs.
He was missing and connected to the stand off and shooting. No one knew if they were one in the same person or whether he was still missing, who the guy was- nothing.
The sales rep had the inside scoop because she's close friends with one of her clients who own a car lot and they were hosting some of the used cars my customer had for sale. Dude had retired a couple years ago from his own Uhaul/car business but instead of getting a hobby he just started buying one or two cars and selling them.
Shortly before lunch word came that he was dead. That the person killed in the standoff killed him, or was part of a group that killed him. Beat him to death, likely for money and/or revenge.
My customer wasn't a small, frail guy. He was in his 70s but he was TALL and barrel chested, very solid. I can't imagine what he went through.
He was found in a field. Alone.
There are more details about this story but some of them are things that haven't been released yet, some of them are just speculation (I think) and things are starting to blend together.
I'm gutted. I've been dealing with this guy for years. Hell, I talked to him last week. He'd been dry for a couple weeks at that point and I was so proud of him because he's struggled with alcoholism and being on & off the wagon for a long time. This is a guy who cried for weeks over his dog passing away and, as a result of wanting to remember him, started a city-wide argument about us putting animal obits/remembrances on the same page as the people obits.
If he had it to give you he'd hand you the moon if you asked.
I didn't know him as well as others but it doesn't change that I'm incredibly saddened by this whole thing. No one deserves such a death and I hope if there are other people involved that they live long, miserable, drawn-out lives behind bars and knowing they had a hand in this.
Rest in peace, Chester.