I went for this training this afternoon and before that I was making a joke with my colleagues about how I was expecting to learn how to rob instead of how to deal with robbery

Anyway, by the end of the training, I am not sure how much I have learned, but one thing I made it really clear in my mind is that I know I wouldn’t really enjoy a career as a professional robber, as I kind of have zero tolerance towards stress.

I guess being a robber is a highly stressful job. I found out it through our lecturer’s role-play exercise. He got changed and was wearing a Halloween-ish rubber mask when he came out. He shouted, banged on the counter and holding something in his hand that I couldn’t recall. However, to be honest, I can hardly hear what the robber was saying, even thought he talked extremely loudly and fast. To me, it didn’t make sense as his speech was repetitive even conflict to each other. I guess he was the one probably more frantic and nervous.

The play was so real that finally got me thinking at the end of the game “wow…. I wouldn’t like to be put in that situation regardless whoever I am, a robber, a customer, a staff on spot or just someone who witnesses robbery or passively gets involved….” No wonder there are so many people suffering from traumatised consequence long after the incidents.

But it refreshed my mind. The most important thing the training had been trying to teach is that “nothing is more important than life itself”. So the core of the strategies is to maintain calm mentally but look physically submissive and non-threatening.

Well, I suppose we should forget about all the heroic scenes in those Hollywood movies, which were only produced to feed the taste of people’s idealism and their daydreams of being stronger and more powerful. After all, not all of us are heroes.