Danny Rosas-Salas

Doctor Haslam

English 1010

January 11, 2022

Gang Members at the Office

https://youtu.be/u5fooIJ3Cww

Throughout our lives we are asked, “Hey how was your day?”. We will usually respond

with, “It was good”, or instead we will say, “It was alright. Nothing happened today”. Today was

different. Not a lot of people experience what I’ve gone through today at work, especially when a

gang threatens and tries to storm into the facility that I work in.

My name is Jimmy, and I’m from Michoacan, Mexico. It might sound strange, but in

some parts of Mexico they charge people to have access to certain freeways or highways. My job

is being an accountant, and I count all of the amount of money that is being charged for entering

the highways and freeways. I make sure that the amount of money corresponds with the amount

of cars that are passing through.

This past week there have been a lot of gang violence occurring throughout Michoacan.

Where they have been killing each other’s members by the dozen, but many people are used to it

at this point because gang violence has been occurring for a while throughout Mexico. Even

innocent civilians that are not even involved get heavily injured or die because of the violence

that is brought to them. Unfortunately, for many years there hasn’t been any major efforts to stop

the ongoing violence of cartels and gangs.

Continuing my story, a guy was coming towards the facility where I worked at. Through

the security camera my coworker and I were looking at him. He was at the rusty security gates of
our building, and he was trying to find something. Then he found our security camera, and then

stared straight into the camera and started yelling.

“Hey! Can you hear me?”.

Yeah, we could hear him, but we could also speak to him through a microphone that is

attached to the camera.

My co-worker responded by saying, “Yeah we can hear you. What do you want?”

“I want your camera footage from last night,” as the guy said in a demanding voice.

“Why would you need it? The footage is classified.”

The footage that he was talking about are from our security cameras that are on the roads

of the highways and freeways that we charge. Where we see what cars passed by, and check if

they paid the fee that is required to enter. With these cameras we could also catch a glimpse of

their license plates.

In order to have access to the footage we need to ask and have a written form from a

judge accepting the request.

“Don't waste my time, give me the footage now and there won’t be any more problems.”

“Like I said before the footage is classified, so sorry pal you can’t have the footage”

“Listen to me! Some guys went by one of the roads that you guys charge, and they are the

same guys that murdered our members. We’re looking for them to get our revenge. Now, give me

the footage now, or the rest of my gang including me will kill every single person in that building

and burn this building into ashes!”

After hearing those words my coworker was in silence trying to come up with words to

respond back, but as he was thinking he was starting to sweat from the fear that his life was at
stake. Not going to lie, I was getting scared too, for I was starting to get goosebumps just from

listening to that.

As we both looked at each other in suspense we both knew that we’re not going to give

him the footage because we are not going to contribute to even more gang violence.

Even if we wanted to, we don't have access to it.

Then as we were silent the gang member responded by saying, “ I warned you! I will

come back tomorrow, mark my words!”

My coworker and I were both scared, but as the guy left we told ourselves that hopefully

it was nothing serious. We just said it was only a guy with a group just trying to get something

important by just threatening us. I’d say he might not even be in the gang, but with the fear that

we had we were uncertain about it.

Then the next day came, and everything seemed normal at first, but I was having that

threat repeating in my subconscious constantly while I was working. As time went on I did not

hear or see anything through our facility cameras. Still I can’t let my guard down.

Throughout the day I was looking at the clock constantly counting down the seconds that

were left until I had lunch, so that I could just leave immediately if anything happened.

Then I jumped out of my seat as I heard an alarm, but it was just my coworker’s phone

telling him that lunch had started. After that I told myself that I can’t be paranoid for this long

and let fear consume me. I left my desk to go have lunch somewhere close by because I forgot

my lunch at home just worrying about a threat that wasn’t even real.

As I drive through the rusty security gates of our building I see that there is no person, no

car, and not even a cloud coming towards our building. At that moment I felt assured and calm
that nothing was going to happen. I was able to get lunch at a nearby restaurant close to my

work.

After lunch I was driving back to work, but as soon as I was getting near the main

entrance I saw a large group forming at the entrance of the building. Then as I got closer I

noticed a gang heavily armed with assault rifles and pistols trying to get into the same rusty gate

that the man was demanding us to give him the footage.

I quickly turned the wheel and with a sharp u-turn I left the scene. Driving as fast as I can

not trying to crash, and checking my mirrors every second that I can to see if they were not

following me. At the same time my younger sister and nephew were calling my cell phone, and I

couldn’t answer it as I was trying to get away. Everything was coming at me where my focus is

to drive and escape as far as I can to get back home safely

Finally, I made it home safely, and I was fortunate enough that nobody was following me.

Then an hour passed by, and I turned on the only television in our home to see the news. As I

was seeing the news they talked about what occurred earlier in the day with the building that I

worked at. The gang got past the rusty security gates, but luckily the local armed forces came in

and stopped the situation before more innocent people were involved in another incident of the

never ending violence of gangs.

Then I called back my sister and her nephew because I missed their call earlier, and they

thought I was on my break because I would’ve been working by that time. They were surprised

that I was at home early, and they quickly asked me, “How was work?” Well, you know what my

response was.