Dear Internet,
Todays' Boulder newspaper tells a story of a young man who was abducted off the streets of Boulder, kidnapped, robbed and then kicked out of the car unharmed.
I have had my run in with scumbags. When I was 18 I was kidnapped at gun point by three assailants. It was the summer and I was working cleanup detail of my parents tennis club main facility. There had been a wedding or some such. It was late and I had finished cleaning. I sat out by the pool playing my trumpet. I wasn't much good , but I loved playing Jazz. I saw a car pull down into the facility. I didn't think much of it. I thought it might have been a drunk club member coming back. Then suddenly up through the bushes came three men with stockings over their heads. They rushed toward me. One of them had a shotgun, the other two had hand guns. They told me to get up, that this was robbery.
I thought they were kidding. I couldn't believe this was happening. I said you're kidding? They assured me that, no this was my lucky night. It was a robbery. They wanted cash. The problem was that this was a tennis and swim club and their wasn't any cash. People payed dues or by check for events . I offered the new stereo equipment. We walked around the facility. My parents house was at the end. They were in there asleep. I offered my parents but the robbers weren't interested. Then they made me lay down on my face in the parking lot. I heard one of them say. No don't do it. Then they told me to get up and we waked to their car.
One of them was about 21 and he was mean. The other was calmer and was trying to keep everyone under control. We drove to another building in my family business complex. I took them in and they looked for the cash box which had maybe 50 cents in it. We then drove 6 miles out into the country. I thought they were going to kill me. They almost had back in the parking lot.
The car was quiet so I started talking to them apologizing that I couldn't find them any cash. I asked them about their guns and told them how much I liked them and how much I admired them for being criminals. I told them on my nights off, that I also kidnapped and robbed people and just how weird it was that I was being robbed by one of my colleagues.(yep I really told them that and they believed me too.) They started to feel stupid that they were robbing a brother so to speak.
They were all white. They youngest was 15 and shaking. He had his gun pointed at me as we sat together in the back seat. But he was loosing concentration. I asked him if it was loaded. He said it was. I thought about smacking him, taking his gun and shooting everyone in the car I was prepared to do just that, when they pulled over and let me go. Just like that it was over. It was then that I realized that my gift for gab and getting people to identify with me and buy my story was a natural born God given gift. It saved my life.
I walked up this country road until I came upon a house where a party was going on. Everyone was drunk. I explained what happened. The police came with my brother. The cops drove me around....but found no one.
The next day I was interviewed by detectives and told them they whole story just as I'm telling you. They told my parents that they didn't believe me and thought that I made the whole thing up. So in the end no one believed me. The story was just too wild for a small new England town. I asked for a lie detector test but they wouldn't give me one because they thought I was on drugs.
But this was before drugs entered my life.
I was pretty much a straight arrow at 18. I had family problems and was just starting to have problems with drinking, but I was as sober as a judge that night. Not only had I been kidnapped at gunpoint in an attempted robbery, nearly killed, but the police nor my parents believed me. It was my attempt to gain the robbers confidence is what that threw them. Why would you do that. ?? It was also at that point that I realized that I was on my own in this life. I could get killed and no one would give a shit....not the police....not my family....... it drove me straight into the counter culture where acceptance and truth was the norm. It's why I live in Boulder.
When I became a nightly talk show host with controversial topics I guested various Law enforcement agencies each week. They included: Denver PD , the DEA, CIA, NSA, Boulder pd, LAPD, Aurora Gang unit, Vail pd, NYPD, FBI, INS, you name the agency I've interviewed them. One common theme. People like me who had been victims of serious violent crime, never forget. It happens. I learned that as a talk show host I needed to be prepared at all times. I needed to learn how to defend myself; how not to become a victim and not get into cars with kidnappers. Cops see the worst possible people in the world on a daily basis. They saw what crazy people did to Denver talk show host Alan Berg. They all used to warn me to 'be safe'. My biggest threats came from crazy white drug dealers in Boulder, college punks and members of the Boulder city council. Self respecting real gangsters saw me as "the man' and wanted nothing to do with the kind of publicity and heat I bring. I have had to fight it out with crazy hippies in coffee shops who have attacked me. But anymore, I plain refuse to become a victim.
Jann Scott
Boulder Colorado
318 days left in the project
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