Dear Reader,

Hey. I hope you are doing well!

My first felony as a teenager was for robbery. Yup... I stuck up a gas station... :/ I know, I know. Stupid right. But I was young an dumb and homeless. A friend and I were at the Jonestown bowling alley playing pool (billiards) with some adults. We were drinking + having fun. Some others got in and we started playing against other tables. Later on some guys from another table invited us to a house party in Mt. Airy. About an hour's drive northwest from Winston-Salem, N.C. Of course, we wanted to go. But I was short on money. So was my friend. So, we robbed a gas station. Drunk and with... get this, BB guns. Ha! Yup, we used little copper BB's to take the money from the cashier. Now, while some might think this is funny, I do not. At least not anymore. When I was immature, sure, being careless + reckless was fun. But that situation could have gone really bad. What if HE had a real gun? And killed me or my friend or both of us? It happens a lot more than people know. And the punishment I received was definitely not worth the few hundred dollars we got. But...

We robbed the station + hopped on the highway. The party was jumpin'. There were a couple bands that played.

Let me take a moment to send a shout-out to the band "Blacklist". They were young but kicked ass. The singer reminded me a lot of Fred Durst from "Limp Bizkit".

Back to the story.

We left the party after saying our goodbyes and on our way home... You know what happens when you drink + drive...

It's dark, country roads. Winding through hills + trees. Embankment with a steep drop on our right, pasture on our left. I remembered this road. A sharp curve with a drop is coming up. I told Stephen (not his real name) to slow down, a steep drop comes after this next curve. He says, "I got this. I know how to drive." :/ I wonder how many times that very statement was made just before a car wreck???

It was about 2:30 - 3:00am. We topped the hill + the headlights immediately lit up a 6-8 foot dirt wall + Stephen jerked the steering wheel to the right. The headlights shot off into space, uh-oh! He jerked the steering wheel back. We fishtailed left, right, left, and then right and then bam! We hit the dirt wall + flipped over. He killed the engine and smoke + fumes began to fill the car. I found my seatbelt, click, and I fell on the roof. Found my door handle and put my shoulder into the door. Ahhah - fresh air. Stephen couldn't get out of his seatbelt... :/ Still drunk. I jumped back in, unsnapped his seatbelt + helped him out.

Middle of the country, not even a moon to light our way. We wandered the rest of the night. Fought off some dogs, came across a flag that had KKK on it... not a good night. The next morning someone finally saw the upturned car and called for help. Stephen's mom came and picked him up but I couldn't find a ride. And Stephen's mom wouldn't. She didn't even know me... and "I" was the bad influence. She was right though... :/

Well, a month later I'm at a friend's house back home (my older brother came to get me a few days later w/o a problem) (my mom + sister refused + told me to find my own way) and I'm woken by 2 detectives... Yup. The robbery charge. It turned out Stephen got arrested and he told the detectives who I was. And they put me on Crimestoppers. And someone saw me and called it in.

He and I were both sentenced to first time felon boot camp (Impact West). If we violated we went to prison. After boot camp we had probation. I'll get into how Impact West was for me in my next blog. And how after boot camp I ended up in prison instead of the Marine Corps.

Until next time

Yours truly
Doug