英语小故事第246期：Man Shoots Up Post Office

A 36-year-old man stormed into the Ramona post office yelling at everyone to get out of his way. Carrying a shotgun, he climbed up onto the countertop and told everyone to lie on the floor. Then he pulled the trigger and fired a round into the ceiling. Plaster splattered onto the floor and the customers.

The man ordered all the customers and employees to sit up and look at him. He said, "Repeat after me: I hate the post office!" Everyone repeated the words. He fired another round, but this one he aimed at the front plate glass window. Shattered glass went everywhere.

Three minutes later, five police cars pulled up in front of the post office, lights flashing and sirens wailing. Using a bullhorn, a police officer told the man to walk out backwards with his hands up. The man fired another blast out the shattered window. The police officer and his bullhorn were uninjured. However, one police car had three little pit marks in it.

The man yelled, "I'm not coming out until the post office pays me for pain and suffering. A postal truck ran into my car two years ago. My back is killing me. I can't work anymore. My wife left me. I can't take it anymore."

After a while, the man calmed down. He released all the people inside. At 7:00 p.m., the man walked out backwards with his hands up. The police handcuffed him, put him in the back seat of the car, and drove him to the police station.

A post office official said that they had tried to settle with the man out of court, but he refused anything less than a million dollars. "So the whole thing went to court," he said. "I guess he got tired of waiting for the trial to begin. He'll probably go to jail for a few years because of this stunt."