Posted on 09/25/2005 9:22:38 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo
Nobody likes to be robbed, but Bill and Joshua Borklund have taken extra measures to make criminals pay for targeting a Hoover gasoline station.
Bill Borklund, who owned and ran the Alford Avenue BP for 5 years before leasing the business to someone else several months ago, once chased a man 134 miles to Troy for stealing $20 worth of gasoline.
In 2003, he followed a robber out of his store, grabbed a pellet rifle from him and started hitting him with it. He also pulled a pistol and fired five shots at the robber's fleeing car in an attempt to disable it.
His 24-year-old son, Joshua Borklund, now is following in his father's footsteps. Just two weeks ago, the younger Borklund, who works for the new owner, got into a shootout with a robber in the parking lot.
Like father, like son. These Borklund men don't like to let criminals get away.
"They put your life in jeopardy. I think you ought to put their life in jeopardy," said Bill Borklund, 48, of Hoover.
If other people were around, he wouldn't shoot at a robber, but if the premises were clear, robber beware, he said.
"Once he lets his guard down, he better have life insurance because I'm going to end his career," Bill Borklund said. "My granddaddy was a sheriff for 24 years. I have tremendous respect for him and respect for the law. I just don't stand for criminal activity."
The elder Borklund said he has a problem with people who steal or rob.
"They can work just like everybody else ... That's the American way," he said. "But to threaten somebody's life or think there are no consequences for your behavior, I'm sorry, that's wrong."
Over the years, Borklund went to great measures to stop people from stealing. He installed at least 11 video cameras inside the store and at least four outside. He has chased 20 to 30 people who drove off without paying for gas.
One gas thief he chased was charged with attempted murder after trying to run over a Prattville police officer who was blocking a road, he said.
The gas thief he chased at high speeds to Troy in 2001 pulled off the interstate several times, trying to lose him. That thief escaped by driving the wrong way up a highway entrance ramp, which Borklund was unwilling to do, for fear of harming someone else.
Borklund said he slit another thief's tire with a knife, but in recent years he began throwing nails at their tires. He caught five or six thieves that way, he said.
For those who got away, he sometimes posted their pictures at the pump so other customers could identify them.
The elder Borklund also aggressively pursued bad check writers, signing hundreds of arrest warrants for people who failed to pay, he said.
He usually carries a 9 mm or .40-caliber pistol, but he also kept a double-barrel sawed-off shotgun in the store. The robber at whom he shot two years ago was caught and convicted and is in prison today, he said.
Borklund's son, who lives in Warrior, used a 9 mm pistol against the robber from two weeks ago.
The younger Borklund said he and another clerk had closed the store just before midnight Sept. 11 when a gunman forced them back in side. He obeyed the robber's orders to give money from the cash register, but when he said he didn't know the code to the safe and had trouble opening the second register, the robber fired a shot into the office door.
"He was pretty frantic, screaming he's going to kill us," Joshua Borklund said. "I would guess he told us he was going to kill us at least 20 times."
When the robber left, Joshua Borklund ran out the door after him and fired several shots at him. The robber returned fire once or twice. "He was firing wildly, just turning around and shooting," Borklund said.
Borklund fired at the robber again as he ran to a waiting vehicle. "I was aiming for him," but adrenaline was flowing and it had been three to four months since he had practiced shooting, he said.
"I don't really want to kill nobody," Joshua Borklund said. "If I would have hit him, I would have called an ambulance."
The 24-year-old said his father always in stilled in him a dislike for stealing and the need to think about how actions can hurt other people. "If they're going to do it to you, they're going to go down the road and do it to somebody else," he said. "This guy shot a hole through the door. What's he going to do next time? They don't really care about human life."
Hoover's assistant police chief, A.C. Roper, recommends people comply with robbers' demands if they relate to stealing money or property. "Your life is more valuable than the money," he said.
However, if a robber has departed the premises, victims should immediately call police rather than pursue the suspect and possibly place themselves in another life-threatening situation, Roper said.
"Everybody has the right to defend themselves, but your life has to be in imminent danger," Roper said.
In very limited circumstances would even police have a right to shoot at a fleeing criminal who is not shooting at them, he said. "The danger has passed. The person is running away, and he is no longer a threat to you."
Plus, if an innocent bystander is struck by a store clerk's bullets, the clerk is responsible, Roper said.
Joshua Borklund said he certainly wouldn't have fired at the robber if other people had been around. "It's too dangerous," he said. "I don't want to risk anybody else's life."
I've been to that convenience store dozens of times. Perhaps my visits never coincided with either of the gentlemen in the story, or maybe they're just mild-mannered until you cross them.
BTTT
BUMP!
With the cost of gasoline going out of sight, there will be a lot more "no-pay" drive offs and insurance is too high to buy without huge deductibles so most of the privately owned stations around here have armed attendants (the chains seem to not value their employees lives too much and will not allow them to keep weapons).
A franchise up against the disenfranchised......tough part of town to be in business. Maybe they need to put up my tag line on their door....but then that proposes the bad guys can read.....english or not.
Person pulls a weapon on ya send em to the highest court.....let the good lord judge em.....just my opinion of course.
Stay safe Ya'll ....
Like what?
No jury, not even one hand-picked in Berkeley, CA by the ACLU, is going to rule in favor of a criminal in these situations.
Who watches the store while a chase is in progress? Sounds like a prime setup for a tag team of robbers.
Big city DA, Chief of Police and Sheriff nearest me sent out letters to all gas stations to request that they impose pay before you pump. Drive off's are zero these days for those that implemented such a policy. Stations and stores that didn't comply with the LEO's requests have to go to the police station to report such crimes as the cops won't even respond to drive off calls to franchises that still "trust" the populace to pay .....
Just one cure for a problem....
That's the way all families should be. I've read about these two before. They would be the last people I'd ever want to rob if I were a criminal.
In other words, citizens shouldn't be responsible for defending their own lives and property. BS.
Actually, every gas station I know of is either pay at the pump with a debit or credit card, or prepay. That ends drive offs.
I bet they are armed with EVIL WEAPONS OR HAD AN SUV NEAR BY... What is wrong with people protecting their property? I just do not understand the lefties view of the world.
If it were universally considered acceptable to shoot fleeing robbers and other violent criminals, there may be some risk of hitting innocent bystanders. I would suspect, however, that the reduction in robbery rates resulting from such a policy would mean there'd be very few robbers to shoot at. Consequently, the risks to innocents would be minimized.
No jury, not even one hand-picked in Berkeley, CA by the ACLU, is going to rule in favor of a criminal in these situations.
Americanwolfsbrother is right, Extremely Extreme Extremist. It's a sad fact of American life that there are lots of ambulance-chasing lawyers that would love to take up the case of a perp injured as he was fleeing a gas station where the owner chased them as they left the premises. They would end up owning the gas station in a civil action (well, 2/3 anyway; the lawyer would get 1/3). The police will tell you this too, if you take a concealed-carry course in your state (presuming it has one).
And wouldn't throwing nails at the perp's tires, leave nails on the roads to endanger other people?
BP and Shell in Jefferson City have gone to all prepay also. Saturday in Branson MO, I filled up at a prepay station so I guess most are going to it.
I have a local Mom & Pop unattended set of pumps in our locale that I use a gas card. When traveling I use my Debit/Credit to pay at the pump to preclude the perp walk to the window for a fill up.
Again law abidding populace pay the price of a failed judical system. Six months with a weedhoe in a Texas barditch full of snakes and chiggers 16 hours a day, 7 days a week eating PBJ sandwiches made from day old bread and water , living in a old surplus tent would stop this crap eventually.
Not about what they take it's that they "take".....draconian measures of confinement and hard labor have their place IMO.....
The Arapaho(sp?) Plan???
If I get a role in planning it they'll wish that old Joe was running it.....:o)
Sherrif Squantos, has a nice ring to it.
BTTT
He'll be lightened of his FR posting abilities in no time.....:o)
Bull Sh*t Filter on FR must be down !
I pinged that Admin Mod but have seen the Lead Mod this AM so maybe there is only 1 on call right now.
See Ya 'round Sherriff;)
Gotta go to the store and get out of the house for a few, been cooped up for 5 days with this diveticulitis stuff. Got a CT Scan at 06:30 Tuesday w/ the glow in the dark stuff I get to drink and all. Damn what fun.
Maybe where you live its considered acceptable. In Arizona if you shoot them on the way out the door you will be charged. My CCW instructor told us if you do shoot a perp leaving your house make sure you turn the body around before the police get there otherwise you will be charged with murder unless you can PROVE your life was in danger. Just the way I was taught out here in the new "Old West".AWB
Prayers for ya my friend.......hope they patch ya up or releive you of some discomfort at the very least.
Keep me posted !
Stay safe !
Throwing nails in the road may kill someone granted, all I'm saying is if you shoot someone who is fleeing without being able to prove your life was in danger at that exact moment; there is a lawyer out there that will be looking to get charges files and sue you for everything you own.
Thanks, how is your Lady friend doing?
When I know more than it hurts I'll let Ya know.
Sounds like a reasonable opinion to me.
Maybe this man has not thought of this yet to avoid drive offs without paying.
Make Cash Customers Pay before the Pump, duh.
Us Debit/Credit card users must present our card for payment at the pump before we get gas already.
You forgot the pink underwear. lol
Seriously though, other than these thugs being confined, they have it better than they did on the outside. Lawsuit after lawsuit has required the tax payer to offer CABLE TV, exercise equipment, access to law libraries, specialty foods, etc. That being said, I (as a taxpayer) would pay increased taxes to build more prisons In Missouri, you don't get sent to prison, except for the "180 day shock confinement", until your 8 or 9 crime. The clown that stole my pistol was on 2 and 5 year "SIS" (suspended imposition of sentence) for sprevious crimes, stole credit cards and used them, burned a vehicle, stole 2400 dollars worth of electronic equipment from Radio Shack (on security tape), broke into cars (got caught because he dropped his cellphone in one of the vans he was burglarizing), found in house with stolen property, and on and on. He got 5 days, 10 days in county jail, and 180 day shock confinement in state prison. He's due out in October. Oh yes, he spent 18 months in Juvenile Detention.
BTW, this perp is only 20 years old.
Hopefully he doesn't see 21.......
How did Joe the sheriff in AZ avoid the aid and comfort law suits when he dumped this trash in tents on cots etc and other states are subjected to it ?
I'd think it would be cheaper to stall lawsuits in court that buy club fed spa accessories for each prisoner. I would establish a "reward" program for those prisoners that work hard and stay out of trouble by letting them "purchase" their own TV and eat better that those in solitary or high risk confinement. The ones that don't "jack the box" 24 & 7......
I see a phucup society that will not give a low income family who work two or three jobs to survive a pell grant for their kids college yet the fat assed POS prisoners family who's "hard workday" only involves the walk to the mail box to get their SSI and or welfare check and have to stand in a line for their food stamps...
I have no problem to provide aid to the valid handicapped individual. Just remove lazy lying lounging leach from the handicapped column . Ya don;t work...ya don't eat. Ya get caught robbing , stealing while threatening a life with a weapon ya don't breath anymore either.....
Thanks for your service.
Thanks....yer the first person I ever met that openly acknowledged they belonged to No Such Agency at one time....:o)
BTW I ask that when I'm wrong or out of line ....tell me , educate me , kick me to the curb .....please !! Stoopid is a virus and I have been known to get ill now and then. More like guilt by association with my buddy Eaker.
Stay safe !
We all get a little "over the top" on occasion. I had a comment deleted for telling what the feds would see if they came to take my guns. One of sara brady's worshippers apparently thought I was a little violent/insane. lol
Thanks for the ping.
Thanks for the ping.
Thanks for the ping!
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