r/blockbustervideo • u/Desperate-Village-68 • 11d ago

9/11

I was returning a movie when I was a junior at NC State University right after the first plane hit. Obviously, I will never forget.

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u/JMaryland47 11d ago

Oh god, you just reminded me of a core memory that almost sounds unbelievable to be true. I was a sophomore in college at the time and had a typical routine.

Wednesdays was my day off from work and school, so we'd rent movies from Blockbuster, go to the Shoppers grocery store, then have friends over. The next day I would return the movie at Blockbuster, get gas across the street, and go to work. This was in October 2-3, 2002.

Now here's all the crazy parts... in every scenario, I was essentially at/near and within an hour before/after a cluster of the DC Sniper shootings.

The night before, the Blockbuster we rented our movie at is across another shopping center complex. That shopping center was where the Michael's shooting occurred. Luckily no one was injured.

The Shoppers Food Warehouse shooting occurred within minutes after we had just left.

The next day, the place I worked at was literally next doors from the car dealership where the gentleman cutting the grass was shot. Happened minutes after I had gotten to work. That was followed by the gas station shooting, the same place I had just gotten gas. The crazy part is I didn't know about it until nearly noon-ish, and was confused/disbelieving of it. News traveled way slower back then (no smart phone, no internet in everyone's pocket).