It’s the middle of the afternoon on a hot summer day. There are no customers in the small country store when a bandit points to a bulge under his T-shirt and says to the store’s clerk, "I’ve got a gun, give it up and nobody gets hurt."

Bradley hands over $17 which cleans out the cash register. "Is that all you got?" asks the bandit.

"We never keep much in the register, sir," Bradley answers, almost apologetically.

The bandit sees a bottle of wine on a shelf behind the clerk. "Gimme that!" he demands.

"Sorry, sir, I can’t do that, the law says you must be 21 before you can get alcoholic beverages."

The bandit snaps back, "The law says I’m not supposed to hold up anybody either, but I’m doing it. Just gimme the dang bottle, you little twerp!"

Nervously, Bradley responds, "Sir, you don’t look 21 years old to me. Before I can turn this bottle over to you, I’ll need to see some ID. I could get in trouble."

The bandit is obviously frustrated. Nervously he fingers through his wallet until he finds his driver’s license, then hands it over to the seemingly calm clerk.

"By golly, you’re right, sir, says Bradley. You were born in 1977. That makes you 22 years old. Would you like a bag for that?"

The bandit snatches the bottle out of Bradley’s hands and quickly leaves the store. You can write the end of this column yourself. But when you write your ending remember, whether the holdup guy had a gun or not makes no difference. The "threat of a gun" is enough to make it "armed robbery." That’ll get you seven to 10 years almost anywhere.