AURORA — Greg Jones had bought Batman tickets for himself, his brother and two of his brother’s kids several days early so they would be sure to have a seat at the Century 16 theater at Aurora Town Center.
But on the way to the movie late Thursday night, the unexpected happened: The right rear tire on Jones’ gold Buick Century blew out near the intersection of Chambers Road and Iliff Avenue. They were only a few blocks away.
“Oh, come on! Really?” his 17-year-old nephew Brandon was saying. “You need to get rid of this piece of junk.”
Jones, 45, said it took so long to pull out his jack, raise the car and put the tire on that they would have been late to the movie. They decided to wait until Sunday, even if they lost some money on the tickets they had bought.
“We didn’t want to miss any of it,” he said. “It ended up that we didn’t go.”
They all went to bed, without hearing anything about the shootings at the same theater they planned to attend.
Early Friday morning, Jones’ niece Tanya, 14, came crying into his room. At the time, it was being reported that 14 moviegoers were dead and 50 were injured.
“We all looked at each other just stunned,” Jones said. “We’re so grateful we’re alive.”
He said the theater usually has heavy security. Often there are three police officers there.
“I don’t know how that guy got there,” he said. “They really needed a superhero that night.”
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206, facebook.com@kmitchelldp or twitter.com/kmitchelldp
