Store Owner Defends Shop From Ax-Wielding Robber Using Tuna Cans & Chips
In her bestselling memoir “The Glass Castle,” Jeannette Walls described her hardscrabble life in (among other places) New York City. “People were always telling me that if I was robbed, I should hand over my money rather than risk being killed,” she wrote.
“But I was darned if I was going to give some stranger my hard-earned cash, and I didn’t want to become known in the neighborhood as an easy target, so I always fought back. Sometimes I won, sometimes I lost.”
She wasn’t the only one loath to give her money to a ne’er-do-well. Shopkeepers and deliverymen in big and little cities have ferociously fought thieves with everything they have at hand — and sometimes with their bare hands.
On March 21, a deliveryman for a New York Chinese restaurant went out to deliver a meal to a Harlem address around 9 p.m. That wouldn’t normally be an odd occurrence.
However, this order was actually an ambush. A pair of robbers stood waiting for the 56-year-old deliveryman, guns at the ready.
Only when they attempted to rob him, the deliveryman fought back. Not only did he successfully fight off the pair, he kept a hold of his food and phone the entire time.
Raj Sandhu, the owner of a Maypole Stores location in Welford-on-Avon, England, fought a more pitched battle with thieves on January 22. The altercation began as he emptied a cash machine just after 8 p.m.
That was the moment some hammer-wielding thugs decided to come in and relieve him of his lucre. Sandhu, though, wasn’t willing to part with it even though he was unarmed.
The hammers rose and fell, and cash flew about the store, but Sandhu continued to fight until the thieves scooped some dough from the floor and fled. Though the 25-year management veteran suffered some bad bruises, he was otherwise okay.
On the other side of the world, another corner-store manager faced a very similar situation on June 28. Baz Rizk, who runs a Friendly Grocer in Brisbane, Australia, used some very unorthodox means of defense to scare off an armed intruder.
Footage from a security camera showed the thief entering the store wearing track pants, a hoodie, and a balaclava. He slowly strode down an aisle toward Rizk, who seemed to be sorting merchandise.
As the robber approached him, he drew his hand out from underneath his hoodie. He had an ax hidden there, and he held it out toward Rizk.
Then he flinched — and flinched again and again. Rizk had begun to quickly pelt him with merchandise.
“’I wanted to get this guy, take him down, and teach him a lesson,” the manager told the Daily Mail Australia. “He copped four tins of tuna to the head, some Pringles, and some baby formula, and he ran for his life.”
Two of Rizk’s female employees were there also, and they grabbed baseball bats before heading after the would-be robber. However, he was long gone by then.
Not every small business owner or employee may want to mix it up with a criminal. I’d wager that one thing is true, though: No one will be bothering Rizk’s establishment any time soon.
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