Twelve Oaks pandemonium affects Milford student

On Aug. 20, three men shattered a display case at Tapper’s in Twelve Oaks Mall and stole two watches; shoppers at the mall, including a current Milford student, went into a panic as they believed the glass breaking was the sound of gunfire.

Luckily, no one was injured from the robbery. However, the mall went into a frenzy at the idea of a shooter being on the loose. As stated by Hometown Life, the third 9-1-1 call that the Novi Dispatch Center received proclaimed that gunshots had been fired inside the mall.

Misinformation soon spread like wildfire on social media and internet users circulated shooter rumors. Police at the scene quickly determined that there was no active shooter and it was just a smash and grab robbery. According to the Detroit Free Press, two of the suspects are in police custody but the third has yet to be found. Twelve Oaks Mall went on lockdown for the remainder of the day and later opened the next morning.

With an area of over 1.5 million square feet, one can only imagine how hectic the mall was for shoppers and workers when the robbery broke out. One worker who happened to be working at the mall was current Milford student Cami Munce.

The Milford senior, who just started her job at American Eagle that week, was folding jeans when a group of girls ran into the store screaming obnoxiously. Munce assumed the girls were just messing around and didn’t think much of it until she heard a loud noise and her mind automatically jumped to the conclusion that it was a shooter. Immediately, frantic customers began piling into the store as Munce’s manager attempted to shut the doors.

The large, glass door hinges eventually broke due to customers desperately trying to get into American Eagle. Munce ran to the back of the store, along with about 15 other American Eagle associates, and focused on just trying to get out. Leaving her phone and car keys behind, Munce hustled through the mall’s underground tunnels and tried to escape the chaos.

After running for about a half ½ mile, Munce and her coworkers reached the McDonald’s located just outside of Twelve Oaks where they used stranger’s phones to try to get ahold of their families.

“Of course the one weekend my family’s Up-North with barely any service is the weekend all of this happens,” said Munce. “My mom called me later that night and asked me how work was and I just laughed and said ‘Well, do I have a story for you.’”

Since Munce’s car keys and phone were still locked in the store, she had to wait over four hours for her manager to go back to unlock the store and retrieve them. For Munce, those four hours were filled with unanswered questions and rumors about what actually happened at the mall.

“It’s not that I thought I was actually going to die,” Munce explained. “It’s just scary when you’re in a situation like that and there’s no way of knowing what’s actually going on.”

Munce and other co-workers were soon relieved to find out that the “shooter” was just a smash and grab robbery. If ever in the same situation again, Munce’s best advice is to just run as quickly as you can and get yourself out.

Munce’s first week of work is sure one to remember.