Conversation in Buzzy’s Country Store the other day involved robberies. Someone asked me if Buzzy’s had ever been robbed.
It sent me looking for the following 3 December 1980 Enterprise article discussing a robbery at Buzzy’s (click here.)
As stated, the dirtbags broke in thru the Store’s side window and proceeded to rob all of the Winston cigarettes and Jack Daniels products. When they opened the cash register they found below the change tray a schematic of how to open the new safe that Buzzy had recently purchased.
While Buzzy had memorized the new combination, he had retained the pictorial instructions for my Aunt Sissy and Berta to use when they had to open the new safe.
Thus, when the crooks stumbled upon these instructions for opening the safe they proceeded to open it and clean out all of its contents including Buzzy’s rare coin collection. (Thru his years running the Store, Buzzy had collected numerous old coins that he then stashed in the safe.)
The day after the robbery, a young dude came into the Store, asked Buzzy for a shot of Jim Beam and added “I know you don’t have any Jack Daniels.” As instructed by the police who investigated the robbery, Buzzy had not told anyone that the robbers only stole Jack Daniels. Thus, Buzzy knew that the young guy there drinking before him had some inside info on the break in.
When it came time for another drink, the young guy went to pay, but Buzzy, didn’t charge him. After a couple more drinks on the house, the guy revealed to Buzzy the whole story as to who did the robbery, where they disposed of Buzzy’s important papers (such as stock certificates and insurance policies) and where they pawned his coins. Remember that in the early 80’s there were a couple of Silver/coin shops in Lexington Park area. The robbers sold Buzzy’s coins to one of these shop owners.
Buzzy relayed all of this info to the investigators, but ultimately there was nothing they could do about it. Turns out that the robbers were already facing numerous charges for several other crimes and were heading to doing some extended time in a very gated community.
As for the coin shop guy, he of course denied everything and because the cops were unable to prove anything, nothing was done to him. Years later I ran into this coin shop owner who told me that Buzzy was always rude to him whenever he went into the Store for a visit.
After I told him the above story, he became a agitated that that was the reason why Buzzy wouldn’t give him the time of day. He said “I’ll go right down there right now and talk to your old man about this and get it straight.” My response to him was “You can do what you want; but my advice to you is that you may want to let it be and just stay the hell out of there.” To my knowledge, the dude took my advice and never approached Buzzy about it.
Not exactly a B&E song, but something did get stolen here: