As most of you know, I'm currently recovering from a ruptured eardrum from my flight home Saturday. I was supposed to work yesterday, but spoke with a manager on Sunday and told him that I would not be able to come in. He said that was fine and that he would be able to get someone to come in for me.
Well, I knew that I couldn't keep asking for days off, since I had already been out a week on vacation. So, I went in to work this morning, feeling like crap, but reassuring myself that everything would be okay. My ear was still bothering me, and loud noises made me wince, but they seemed to be few and far between as it was a slow business day.
Around noon, I'm talking with a coworker and I hear this horrendously loud noise that left my ears ringing, and both of my hands over my ears. I about cried, my ear hurt so badly. I was almost certain I would never hear out of it again.
I can barely hear something my coworker said about "gunshots" and the next thing I know, everyone is being moved to the back of the store. I tried to hurry as quickly as I could, but I'll be honest with you girls, either the fact that my equillibrium is shoddy or that I was crying crocodile tears from the pain kept me at a snail's pace.
We stayed in the back for about 10 minutes until the police showed up and the manager told us it was, no joke, "safe to return to work". Safe to RETURN TO WORK. WTF!
There were THREE bullet holes in our building. TWO of which actually traveled through concrete exterior and interior wall, and one that came through the window up front. According to police, they believe it was fired from a .45 caliber gun.
Here is the bullet hole in the window (on the opposite side from where the cash registers are, which is where I was standing). I tried to get as close to it as I could, but that hole is about 2 inches in diameter.
I couldn't get a picture of the one in the wall, because it was too high up. No one's really sure where the third shot went.
According to the news reports and the police, the suspect was shooting at a moving vehicle, and Office Max just happened to be behind it. No one was injured, thank God. The bullet that went through the glass actually lodged in the back wall of the store.
I left work at around 4pm, and there were a TON of police vehicles and a couple of ambulances all circling the apartment complex across the street (where the shots were fired from). Turns out, they were having a "brief standoff" with the suspect, who WAS arrested without further incident.
I think I've had enough excitement for one week.