Dallas Costco Robbed Today

[Bitter Clinger]

Here is the "After Action Report" that I mentioned at our monthly breakfast. Report is courtesy of Caleb Causey of Lone Star Medics
(http://lonestarmedics.com/) and IMHO provides some useful insights to what really happens in a stressful emergency situation:

Lessons Learned at a jewelry heist…

My family (wife and infant son) and I were present in this store when four armed men performed a brazen jewelry heist in the middle of a Sunday afternoon. If family and close friends are ready this before we’ve had the chance to tell you, we’re all OK and made it home safe. For everyone else; I would like to share some interesting observations we encountered during this unexpected shopping experience.

I was on dad detail with the kid strapped in his car seat/stroller combo peering over the book section near the back half of the store. Mom was two rows over with the baby’s diaper bag (a VERTX EDC Ready Pack) on her back. That’s when I heard five or six “muffled pops” coming from the front of the store by the cashiers. Immediately following that volley of pops, there were screams and what looked like everyone at the front of the store started running in shear panic towards the rear of the store, in our direction. I started to push the stroller in a brisk but calm demeanor and the wife joined us within seconds. As the isles between us and the fire exit started to fill with a panicked mass of people (and their giant shopping carts they were still pushing); the wife took point out front of the stroller and let’s just say that Moses could not have parted that sea of madness like my wife did. Upon reaching the fire exits, the wife hit the door bar and put her back into it. The door to safety did not budge. At all. She hit it again. Nothing. Turns out there is a 10-15 second delay on these fire/emergency exits for what I imagine is a Loss Prevention thing. We eventually made it through the doors and outside. The side of the building we exited into was one sidewalk width apart from a major four-lane divided road. Traffic came to a screeching halt as shoppers aimlessly ran out into traffic to add distance to them and the store. We cautiously waited a few seconds until traffic had stopped in both directions and made our way to a new apartment complex building. We utilized the parked cars as cover as we found refuge from the threat and heat (it was over 100° that afternoon in Dallas) inside the lobby of the complex. We conducted a quasi A.C.E. report quietly to ourselves and started assessing our environment. Little did we know as the sales lady started locking the lobby’s main door behind us, she had just had a very disgruntled tenant leave and who was now walking up to the door. There was no internal room to bunker down in, so we posted up against a large metal support beam. He was visibly upset and making a lot of arm movements and using harsh language outside the door. He eventually left and returned back to his apartment. After about 20 minutes, we witnessed fire trucks and some police vehicles leaving the store parking lot which indicated to us that whatever happened was over. Using parked vehicles as cover, we basically bounded back to our vehicle through the parking lot while not making spectacles of ourselves, fired up the vehicle, secured the baby in his seat bracket, and drove home.

Lessons Learned:

1. Mob mentality IS a thing; a dangerous thing. We witnessed a mass of people running past multiple emergency exits to escape danger.

2. Having the right mindset, education/training, and tools paid off. Over the years the wife and I have made getting professional training with firearms, less-lethal tools, edged weapons, combatives, and even medical training (we’re students first before teachers here at LSM) a priority. The next step we are currently working aggressively on is our physical fitness level. Not that we were gassed from our little event, but even the past two months of lifting heavy things in the gym was helpful.

3. Carry your gun! Without giving away too much FAMSEC (think OPSEC/PERSEC but for a family); the wife and I both have our concealed carry license and carry our handguns as much as work and the law allow. We also carry other various defensive tools. Even our infant kid carries his own med kit in his diaper bag. The point is that we were thankful we had quality life-saving equipment on our bodies to deal with different threats. Let's just say we carry products from Tactical Medical Solutions Inc., GLOCK, Benchmade Knife Company, PHLster, QuikClot® Official Page by Z-Medica, SABRE – Security Equipment Corporation, Keepers Concealment, Lone Star Armory, LLC, Safer Faster Defense, and Shivworks and Shivworks Alumni.

4. “Lady, I never walk into a place I don’t know how to walk out of.” – Sam, Ronin
Know where the exits, ALL the exits, are and how to open them. Take two seconds and read the large print on the door for instructions or any other information posted on them. They make you do that when you sit in an emergency row on an airplane. Start doing that in buildings you’re in on a daily basis. Fire/Emergency exits had a timed delay on them before they would open/unlock which caused people to move on to another set of emergency doors; which created more delay in getting to safety and created more panic. SEVERAL folks simply did not even notice the emergency exits until I curtly informed them to use them as we tried to open them ourselves.

5. There is no such thing as a safe place. My family and I made it out of the building, across a major road with traffic, and into a building across the street we thought was safe but turned out to be in the middle of another altercation. I’m not saying my family lives in a constant state of fear; but merely in levels of awareness and readiness. When friends ask “Why do you carry a gun? What are you afraid of?” I respond with a calm “Nothing. I’m not afraid of anything. I am afraid of failing… my family.” What sort of parents would we be if we didn’t take our own personal safety serious, let alone our child’s safety serious? So, we continuously train, learn, and practice.

6. The wife and I had a plan, not a reaction. As I just stated above, we are continuously training, learning, and practicing for bad days. Some people simply stood in absolute disbelief that “danger” was present. These people collapsed on themselves, right next to their children. They went to their knees, screamed, and cried, all while holding the handle of their shopping cart. Some folks near the front of the store ran aimlessly knocking others over as they went. We had a plan and executed it. We didn’t panic, we didn’t have to engage in a lot of critical thinking. We already knew what our priorities/goals were and quickly developed a means to accomplish them. I’m not knocking those who panicked. I’m simply providing my observations.

The wife and I conducted our own After Action Review, and have made adjustments as needed. We hope this violent event and these points help you and your family make your own adjustments as needed.

Drink Water,
- Caleb Causey

[imkopaka]

In reference to carrying in Costco, other members are correct: their membership agreement prohibits guns, but not in such away that meets the legal requirement set out in 30.06 or 30.07. Therefore, if you carry in Costco and they catch you they can revoke your membership, but cannot charge you with a crime unless the specific store in which you carried is posted. I have personally open carried in Costco in Lubbock (once). I made it past the entry ID-checker, numerous stockers and clerks, the cashier bank, the food court, and the customer service desk on my leisurely, hour+ visit without a word about it. The receipt-checker at the exit politely told me "for future reference, you aren't allowed to carry your gun like that. It's against our member agreement." I took that to mean I can't OC in Costco, said "oh I can't open carry here? Darn." and left. Now I only CC in Costco.

That being said, I don't carry my .45 with a 13+1 capacity in Costco because it's too difficult to conceal. I carry my .380 LCP with a 7+1 capacity and two spare 6 rd mags. If I had my .45 I might feel a little more confident in this situation moving to address the threat directly. Again, MIGHT. But I don't like my odds with the smaller round and the very real possibility of two reloads. Unless my family was directly threatened by these thugs, I would not even draw my weapon.

[LAYGO]

I've been a Costco member for quite awhile & I've concealed carried in at least 5-6 diff DFW Costcos with no issues or any signage noted.

[Bitter Clinger]

One arrest in Costco pickax robbery

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2 ... police-say

[The Annoyed Man]

Not a reason to draw your sidearm. Although despicable behavior, and repulsive.

All due respect, but I’m not even sure how this is an issue. There was no mention in the article of anyone (other than one of the perps) having drawn a gun. For my own part, I like my Costco membership, but not enough to act as their security guard. Unless the guy with the gun is directly and imminently about to shoot me or someone innocent, my gun stays holstered. Costco can afford to replace the jewelry.