Action in Pennsylvania...no, but really.

Guys, I know you might not want to read this entire story, BUT you must. It was SO crazy and, call me cruel... but kind of cool to see in person.

So yesterday I had to go pick JD up from his area to take him to another. Let's just say it wasn't in the best area of town. Well, after he finished up we decided to stop by the grocery store on our way back home. It was like 9ish. When we pulled up, there were a few cop cars outside. At first we were hesitant, but then we realized that most of them were all standing outside of the store so it didn't really seem like a big deal. Plus, they were still letting people go inside.

So we walked in and noticed there were 2 cops inside as well. We just kept shopping though and walked to the back of the first aisle (looking for lunch meat). All of a sudden, and all at once, we heard groceries fly off the racks and into the aisles. Then we heard a man scream, "GET ON THE FLOOR!!! PUT YO HANDS BEHIND YO HEAD!!" Right after that we heard someone whack the other person in the head with what we later found out was a flashlight (he proceeded to whack him literally about 30 times..it was SO loud). I looked at JD (almost felt like I was going to pee my pants) and said, "J!!!" He went running to the front of the store and told me to stay where I was. So I stood next to a woman and her young boy. The woman kept telling her son over and over again, "Do not move. He might have a gun." At that point, I was honestly feeling like I was going to take a crapper in my pants. Apparently all the cops were there to arrest a man. When they tried, he resisted and went running to the back of the store. I'm just glad they caught him because he was running right toward where I was.

The cops also sprayed pepper spray at him. All of started feeling it in our throats. It was a weird feeling. It was all itchy and tingly. Some lady next to me started getting a rash all over her arms. It was honestly spreading through the grocery store. While the cops were trying to get the man down on the ground, the manager had all the doors in the store locked so no one could get out. The lady I had been standing next to, ran up to an employee and was like, "I need to get out of here NOW! I have a child!" The employee ran up to the front and unlocked it. Once she ran out, she locked back up again (ps the lady that ran out totally left her cart in the middle of the aisle WITH her cantelopes).

Once they had him down, some employee told us the story. He said that the man tried to buy $600 worth of gift cards for Best Buy. Apparently he was trying to buy them with a credit card that came up stolen. When the cashier said it was stolen, the crazy man (the one who tried to escape) said that someone had stolen HIS identity and that they had it wrong. The manager was about to do a background check on him, so the crazy man decided to call the cops on the manager so that he wouldn't be able to do it. Talk about an idiot. Of course the cops showed up, and then everything happened.

When we went to check out of the store, he was unconscious on the ground with the cops surrounding him (or at least he looked like he was). He seriously looked like he got out of a boxing match. He was just laying there curled up in a ball with a pool of blood by his face. It was the nastiest thing I've ever seen in person. You always see it on shows and stuff, but never in real life. It was kind of crazy. The ambulance showed up and took him out of the grocery store on a stretcher. We were all in the store together for like 20 minutes though. It was kind of funny how good of pals all the customers became. Two ladies were loving me and JD. They kept saying that they just wanted to stand next to us because they felt safe. Haha.. guess it just goes to show that crisis brings people together!

Now let me explain the photos:

1. I definitely tried to get the guts to take a picture of the man laying on the ground. There were so many cops... and I'm not going to lie... I got a teensy bit nervous (I don't like to break rules --- plus I didn't want people thinking I was THAT cruel and insensitive) and so I just barely got the top of his bald head.

2. Crazy man leaving on a stretcher outside of the store.