At the same time as a gunman was ordering Brinks guard Milton Diehl to the floor, Diehl’s colleague, Dick Popowych, was confronting his own armed and masked man.
Popowych knew handguns, so he quickly recognized the .38 pistol. He didn’t hesitate; he laid down, as ordered, on the chilly floor of the Brinks depot. The gunman removed Popowych’s pistol from his side, and pulled a canvas bag – one of those used to carry cash – over Popowych’s head.
Popowych felt pressure on his wrist, and rested as the gunman pulled both of his arms behind, binding them. The gunman then secured his ankles. The binding was plastic, Popowych realized, pulled terribly tight.
Blinded by the canvas bag, Popowych listened closely for sounds inside the depot. He didn’t know whether he’d survive the robbery, but, if so, police would want as much detail as he could provide. He assumed his colleagues – Diehl and Tom O’Connor – had been taken down just as he had.
Popowych heard the whirring, grinding sound of the depot garage door opening. He zeroed in on the sound of several sets of footsteps – maybe three, maybe more – within the depot.
A vehicle pulled into the garage – not one of the Brinks trucks, Popowych decided. Those trucks had a distinguishable diesel growl.
He listened as the garage door lowered. Someone opened a door on the vehicle. Perhaps a sliding door, Popowych thought. Perhaps a van.
Brinks employees used carts to move weighty bundles of money around. Popowych heard the wheeled carts mobilized; someone was loading cash into the vehicle.
More footsteps. This time light footsteps, maybe a woman, coming towards him, stopping next to him.
Popowych braced himself. This likely was the end, his end. Someone stood next to him, deciding his fate.
Popowych felt a small hand, slipping under the canvas, touching his face.
What is she doing, Popowych questioned.
Then the hand was gone, and the footsteps resumed, walking away.
The woman – if it was a woman – had checked to make sure he could breathe.
I’ll live, Popoywch thought.
(To read the initial coverage of the discovery of Ronnie Gibbons’ remains, click here. To subscribe to notifications of this continuing narrative blog, click here. Notifications will also be sent via my Twitter account @gcraig1. )