If you follow me on Facebook, this is old news, but it is too crazy not to share. Yesterday afternoon around 4:30 I took Jack to see the Easter Bunny at our local mall...nice suburban mall. It was daylight and early and I was excited to beat the bunny crowds on the weekend.
Jack loved meeting the Easter Bunny giving him lots of high fives until it was time to actually sit on his lap. Then it was tear city. That's okay, it was quick and painless, we paid and went on our way. I loaded Jack up in his stroller, did a quick trip to Bath & Body Works which is just a few feet away from the Easter Bunny and as we were walking out we stopped one more time to wave goodbye to the bunny.
That's when we start seeing people running to all of the exits. At first I just saw one family running out and thought they were just being silly. That was until the dad looked at me with a crying kid slung over his shoulder and said, MOVE IT - HE HAS A GUN!
I pushed that stroller so fast and ran in my heels faster than I've ever run before. Luckily we weren't far from the exit we needed to get right to our car. Even once we were in the parking lot, I wanted to get as far away from the mall as possible just in case they came running out the same exit. I've never thrown the stroller in the car so fast or buckled Jack in his seat so swiftly. I'm proud of myself for staying calm though - I don't think Jack even noticed anything weird was going on. But I am kinda ticked at the people in the car next to me just watching as I frantically got everything in. They knew what was going on, but seemed to be enjoying the show.
By the time we were driving away, cops were just starting to pull up to the mall. According the news, it was a two man "smash and grab." They both had on masks and one had a gun. No shots were fired and no one was hurt. I think they got away too.
The jewelry store that was hit was just across the aisle from where the Easter Bunny was setup. I could have easily walked in that direction with Jack and almost did when I remembered that I needed to stop at Macy's for some beauty products. Thank God I was too lazy! We would have been even closer if I would have made that choice.
I know you shouldn't live in fear, but I've decided to stay away from the malls when I'm by myself with Jack. The scariest part of the whole ordeal was that Jack was with me. All I wanted to do was get him to safety. There have been too many crazies out there who don't care that it's daylight and there are tons of people around.
At least we are left with some gorgeous pictures of Jack with the Easter Bunny (sarcasm)...
Very reminiscent of our Christmas Edition!