CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – Anthony Facey has returned to the streets of Charlotte he’s called home and office for over two and a half years, but with a new perspective on how far he will go for his job.

“I’m not driving past nine o’clock now,” Anthony told Queen City News in early March. “There’s certain areas of town I just won’t even drive to.”

These are just some of the steps he’s begun to take to keep himself safe more than three months after being shot and robbed while working; he was shot early in the morning on Jan. 8 by the family member of the young passenger he was asked to pick up.

One bullet went into the driver’s side door, and a second went through the rear-passenger side window and into Anthony’s back.

“It came within one millimeter of hitting my heart,” Anthony said.

It took three weeks away before Anthony said he wanted to get back behind the wheel and drive for Uber.

He started with small shifts of two to three hours and has worked his way to feel comfortable enough to work a 12-hour shift. But, it’s not been without hesitation and fear.

“For the first four, the first week, I would have panic attacks when people would just get in the car,” Anthony explained.

He has also been left with $20,000 worth of medical bills that he must pay out of his pocket, which does not cover the cost of the rehab doctors have recommended he do.

The sense of security has been the hardest for him to overcome.

“I worked my whole life to find something I was good at, and I found it, but now I don’t feel safe doing it,” he said. “It really messes with you because how do you feel going into work and you don’t feel safe anymore.”

Through these hard moments, and seasons of fear, Anthony said he had returned to something his grandfather taught him.

“Just because that bad thing happened doesn’t mean that I can sit in fear,” Anthony said. “That’s not how my granddad raised me; that’s not how the people in my environment raised me. When you go through something that’s tragic, you have to deal with those emotions as they come. You can’t run from it.”