At the time Neil worked, on a freelance basis, for Security Express. On the day in question he was on one of the usual delivery runs. My father, who works for a bank, received a phone call. Neil had been involved in an 'incident' and would probably be home a little late. Now Neil was, by now, a married man. So Dad phoned around all the relatives and informed them of the facts as he knew them and we waited for Neil to fill us in. He eventually arrived home around twelve hours after the incident had occurred.

The 'incident' turned out to be an armed raid. Neil had a shotgun pushed into his neck while he and a fellow guard were walking back to the van after a 'loo stop'. The sight of his two colleagues risking severe lead poisoning persuaded the third man to let the raiders into the van. Neil was forced to lie face down on the floor with a shotgun pointing at his back. He assured us later that the position is remarkably comfortable when given the alternatives available at the time. Strangely enough, Neil's attitude before the raid had been that if anybody tried to tackle him, they would never father another child (I've changed his wording slightly). Since the gunman was apparently shorter than Neil, his colleagues were a little surprised by his docility. Neil assured them that pointing a loaded shotgun is one of the best body-building exercises he knows!

I personally feel that Neil took the whole incident more calmly than either his mother or his wife. I knew he was getting over it when, a week later, the police asked if he felt up to taking part in the reconstruction. Neil said he thought so, but if not could they get Arnold Schwarzenegger to play his part!

And so children, we come to the end of our little tale. Neil is still alive, slightly scarred, and much changed from when this story began. There's one or two more stories I could tell you, but I think perhaps there's not a lot of point. You wouldn't believe them anyway!

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