A lot of my friends work at one of the several Breadgardens here, and I'm practically an honorary Breadgarden employee. I hang out there all the time, behind the counter and everywhere else. I even served customers once for fun, and Shell's taught me how to make all the different coffees and everything. Breadgarden is almost like a second home to me.

Last night, the most popular location (called Lansdowne) was robbed. It closed at 1 a.m. that night, so it was about 10 to 1 and there were three girls closing - Ashton, Rachel, and Marilyn. I've met all of them before. I've actually met Ashton a couple times at clubs and I know her best friend, Amanda, who is also a manager there. Ashton and Amanda alternate nights being manager. All three girls are my age or a year younger.

So it was 10 to 1, there were two customers in the restaraunt still, and Marilyn went to take out the garbage. As she opened the door, two guys with guns and knives grabbed her and smashed her face against the glass door. This girl is about 5'1", 100 lbs. She tried to run away but they dragged her back and hit her head repeatedly against the door until she fell to the ground and couldn't get up. The two customers in the store had already screamed and run out of the other exit. Rachel was at the counter, screaming, and she tried to jump over the counter but they pulled her back in and cut her. I think Rachel ran away after that. Then they went into the office, where Ashton was doing the paperwork behind the closed door, and probably had no idea what was going on. They held a gun to Ashton's head and told her to open the safe. Obviously, she was so scared that she couldn't open it, it's a complicated safe to open to begin with. She tried six times but couldn't get it open, and the guys were threatening to blow her head off if she didn't get it right on the next try. She told them she couldn't do it with a gun to her head, so they held the knife to her throat and said, "Is this better?". She got it open finally, they took a few thousand dollars and ran. The customers who had been in the store had called the police, but the guys had already left, so the police found Marilyn at the front, and Ashton curled up in a ball on the floor, crying.

I am so disturbed, and Anna and Shell even more so. Shell actually takes shifts at Lansdowne all the time. It could have just as easily been one of my closer friends working that night. Or even more likely, it could have been Amanda, who is dating Justin, a guy I went to high school with and I see around school now all the time. I cannot believe this happened. It's such a public place, where everyone hangs out.

I heard last night from one of Ashton's guy friends that she's really, really messed up. I would think she would be.

I just cannot believe something this violent happened here, to girls I see on the regular basis, at a place where all of my friends either work or hang out at late at night. I'm really scared.


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