I was harassed by creepy men at the pool. Then one of them started drowning

Flame kept yelling that he needed to go with his friend, but Elias shut the ambulance doors in his face. The ambulance pulled away with its sirens going and Flame stood there looking lost.

Jonas Schultz showed up then, the pool manager, looking stressed as he pushed through the crowd. He went straight to his office with two staff members and I could see them looking at something on the computer screen through the window.

Jonas came back out and walked over to me.

“Asking if I could please stay to talk to the police who were already on their way” He said

I nodded and wrapped the dry towel tighter around myself, sitting back down on the bench. My hands were shaking as I pulled out my phone and started taking pictures of the red strap mark on my shoulder.

The bruises on my thigh were already turning purple and I got those too. My ankle had finger marks where Gold had grabbed me underwater and the chlorine made everything sting worse.

I took photo after photo trying to document everything while fighting the urge to cry. Gold and the fourth friend were standing by the fence now talking quietly to each other and looking over at me every few seconds.

Other people who’d been at the pool were talking to the staff and I could hear them describing what they’d seen.

A woman told the lifeguard she saw them pour beer on my head. An older man said he watched them throw my keys in the pool.

More witnesses kept coming forward with pieces of what happened before Beer hit his head. Detective Shirley Pots arrived about twenty minutes later in an unmarked car.

She had short gray hair and looked like she meant business as she walked onto the pool deck. She separated everyone right away, putting Gold and the fourth friend on opposite sides of the pool area.

She had Flame sit on a bench far from them and told everyone not to talk to each other. Minnie walked up to the detective and showed her something on her phone.

I could see Detective Pots watching the screen and her face got harder with each second that passed. She took out her own phone and had Minnie send her the video files right there.

The detective wrote down Minnie’s contact information and thanked her for the evidence. Then Detective Pots came over to me with a small recorder and asked if I felt okay to give my statement.

I started from the beginning telling her how they showed up drunk and started making comments about my swimsuit. I went through each thing they did: the whistling, the following me to different lanes, the grabbing, the pictures they took without permission.

I told her about the beer being poured on my head and my towel being thrown in the pool. I explained how they threw my keys in the deep end and then trapped me in the shallow end.

I described Gold grabbing my thigh underwater and Beer snapping my swimsuit strap. The detective took photos of all my visible injuries with her camera, getting close-ups of each mark and bruise.

She told me I had a strong case for assault charges and gave me information about getting a restraining order. Jonas came over with his laptop and showed Detective Pots something on the screen.

The security camera had caught a lot of what happened including Gold grabbing me underwater and Beer snapping my strap. Jonas looked sick as he watched his own security footage and immediately said all four men were permanently banned from the facility.

He started typing up the ban notices right there on his laptop. Flame saw the detective looking at the security footage and started walking over.

“Saying they were just having fun and I was making a big deal out of nothing” He said

Detective Pots cut him off and told him he was looking at assault charges and public intoxication at minimum. She said the video evidence was clear and multiple witnesses had already given statements.

Flame tried to argue that Beer getting hurt was punishment enough, but the detective wasn’t having it. She told him to sit back down and wait for her to take his statement.

The Long Road to Recovery

The whole process took almost three hours with all the statements and evidence collection. Detective Pots gave me her card with the case number written on the back.

“Someone would follow up with me in the next few days about pressing formal charges” She said

I finally got to leave as the sun was setting, walking to my car in a daze. My phone had blown up with messages while I was giving my statement.

Minnie had sent me all the video files she took and her phone number in case I needed her as a witness. She’d also sent a text saying she was sorry this happened to me and that those men were awful.

I sat in my car for a few minutes before driving trying to process everything that had happened. My whole body hurt and I could still smell chlorine and beer in my hair.

The drive home felt longer than usual and I had to focus hard on the road. When I pulled into my driveway, my hands were still shaking so bad I could barely get the key in the door.

I went straight to the bathroom and turned on the shower as hot as it would go, stripping off my still damp swimsuit and throwing it in the corner. The water burned my skin but I scrubbed anyway, using half a bottle of body wash trying to get the feeling of their hands off me.

I kept seeing Beer Gut’s face going under the water, the blood spreading out like red paint. My shoulder had a purple bruise forming where the strap snapped and my thigh showed finger marks from where Gold grabbed me underwater.

I stayed in the shower until the water ran cold, then wrapped myself in my biggest towel and sat on my bed. Every time I closed my eyes, I was back against that pool wall with Flame pressing into me, telling me I needed to learn respect.

I tried lying down but kept jumping at every sound outside thinking they’d somehow found where I lived. Around 3:00 in the morning I gave up on sleep and made coffee, sitting at my kitchen table scrolling through my phone.

Minnie had sent three more messages checking if I was okay and saying she’d backed up all the video files to multiple places. The sun was barely up when my phone rang with a number I didn’t recognize.

Detective Pots explained that Beer Gut was stable in the ICU with fifteen stitches in his scalp and a severe concussion that would keep him hospitalized for at least a week. She said once he was medically cleared he’d be arrested for assault and battery based on the evidence they’d collected.

I tried to drive to work but when I pulled into the parking lot and saw a group of men walking toward the building entrance my chest got tight and I couldn’t breathe. My vision went fuzzy and I had to grip the steering wheel to stop my hands from shaking.

One of them glanced at my car and I locked the doors, my heart pounding so hard I thought I might throw up. I called my supervisor from the car barely able to get the words out between gasps.

She told me to take the day off and said HR would mark it as a personal emergency day. I drove home and spent the rest of the morning curled up on my couch, jumping every time a car drove past.

Jonas called around noon his voice full of apologies. He said the pool was offering to pay for counseling sessions with a trauma specialist they worked with for these situations.

He explained they were reviewing all their safety protocols and wanted my input on what changes would help people feel safer. He kept saying how sorry he was that his staff hadn’t protected me better.

That afternoon I tried to eat something but ended up just pushing food around my plate. My phone buzzed with a text from my mom asking if I’d seen the local news website.

Someone had posted Minnie’s video with my face blurred out, but you could still hear everything the men were saying. The article had over three00 comments already.