Full circle: Woman becomes best friends with the man who robbed her at gunpoint

Jessica Saggio
Florida Today
Tristen Gibson talks with her friend Blake Walker via FaceTime on her phone. They became friends after Walker held up the store where she was working at the time.

Blake Walker and Tristen Gibson have the most unlikely of friendships.

On Feb. 2, 2013, the two met in a chance encounter, but it wasn’t a warm and fuzzy friends-at-first-sight moment. It was Gibson’s ninth day on the job at a Port St. John Shell Station when Walker entered the store and held her at gunpoint, demanding she empty the cash register.

“Are you joking?” she said, as he nervously pointed a broken airsoft gun in her direction.
He wasn’t, but she could sense his anxiety.

“I thought this looks like a complete joke, I look like an idiot,” said Walker. “But I said ‘No, this isn’t a joke, dear, I need your money.’”

So she handed him $198 in small bills and change out of the register, and he rode away on a bicycle. Little did either know, it would be the beginning of something special. 

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Walker was in a bad place, he said. Name it, he was addicted. Cocaine, heroin, pills. He didn't have a job. He didn't have a home. He was a wanderer, looking for his next high. He didn't want to be a junkie. No one wants to be a junkie, he said, but here he was with nothing left to lose. 

Robbing the store was a win-win, he thought. Either he grabs enough money for another high, or he gets caught and is thrown in a jail — a chance to get clean.

But when he walked into the convenience store, he lost track of his plan to go into the bathroom and put a stocking over his head. He glanced up at Gibson, she was “smoking hot,” he said, and he couldn’t help it. As he did this, a surveillance camera caught his face. 

Surveillance footage of Blake Walker robbing the Shell gas station in Port St. John.

Two weeks later, Walker was arrested in Tallahassee.

After three years of prison time, he was released from jail, clean and determined to start fresh. He moved to his family’s farm in Mississippi knowing that Florida was home to too much temptation. That’s when his story comes full circle.

Just days after his release, he hears a ding from his Facebook messenger. It’s Gibson – and she’s angry.

She had been keeping track of Walker since the holdup and was waiting for the day to confront him. After being robbed, Gibson flew into a tailspin. She had finally gotten her life back together, but the stress of the robbery gave her an excuse to start drinking again. She had struggled with alcohol for years, and the incident was a gateway back to her demon.

“I said, 'Do you remember me? Because I remember you every day,” said Gibson.

Determined to be a changed man, Walker listened to her and apologized.

“I was in a dark spot in my life, that is not who I was,” said Walker. “I said I accept that I did those things to you and I completely apologize. I asked her to accept my apology, and I’ll be here for you whenever.”

She wasn’t having it. Gibson blocked him.

But something kept nagging at her. Gibson had a hunch Walker was a good person who had made bad choice. She messaged him again a few days later. She needed to, it was part of her recovery process to make amends. 

“It was something I needed to do to move on,” she said.

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Hours of conversation passed, and the two realized they had a lot in common. Both faced addictions, both wanted to get better and both appreciated the simple things in life. They became a team, determined to keep the other on track. 

It was the beginning of a friendship that has blossomed over time. Now best friends, the two talk daily, encouraging one another and keeping track of the other’s sobriety. Walker in Mississippi, Gibson in Florida. 

Tristen Gibson talks with her friend Blake Walker via FaceTime on her phone. They became friends after Walker held up the store where she was working at the time.

 “She’s been sober 617 days now,” said Walker, beaming with pride. “ I let her know every day how proud I am of her.”

Gibson reiterated what an amazing person Walker has become.

“I think we were meant to cross paths,” said Gibson. “Our higher power works in mysterious ways.”

Of course, the two laugh about the situation now, making jabs about Walker’s disorganized robbery plan.

 “It’s funny now,” Gibson said. “It wasn’t then, but it is now.”

Tristen Gibson talks with her friend Blake Walker via FaceTime on her phone. They became friends after Walker held up the store where she was working at the time.

Contact Reporter Jessica Saggio at 321-242-3664, JSaggio@FloridaToday.com or follow @JessicaJSaggio on Twitter. Instagram: JessicaJSaggio Snapchat: JuhJuhJuh