Clerk Takes Robber's GunWRCB-TV News
August 9, 2007
A quick-thinking convenience store clerk taught a robber an important lesson in Albany, New York on Tuesday...never put down your gun. The clerk snatched a shotgun off of the counter after the robber put it down to count his loot. The gunman took off, but he quickly returned for his weapon and struggled with the clerk. All this was caught on a sophisticated store surveillance system.
It shows a masked robber as he walks in to the Quail Street News and Grocery about 5:15 a.m. and demands money from the register. "So I was slowing giving him first two 20 dollar bills and he said, 'Give me all the money.' I said, 'OK, calm down, take it easy, slow,'" explained store clerk Hafiz Alam. Unhappy with the bills being turned over in small amounts, the armed robber put the shotgun on the counter as he demanded more, faster. That allowed Alam to grab the weapon.
"It's more important to him he gets the money. I see that and I was thinking about 'Maybe I can grab this very quick. That's why I grabbed the gun," said Alam, who has been robbed twice before. The robber left the store with money, but no gun. That wasn't good enough, so he quickly came back, jumped the counter and struggled with Alam, who was trying to hold on to the shotgun while calling 911. The gun went off, putting a hole in the bottom of the wall but not injuring anyone. "After he said, 'Give me my gun back,' I said no," the clerk said. Alam says he told that robber, "If you come back I'm going to take your head off!"
A city sanitation worker saw the robber's license plate number, which allowed police to track him down. After a long standoff at his home police fired off a flash stun grenade to try to disorient the man. That didn't work, so they used tear gas as well. The suspect finally walked out the back door and was taken into custody. No one was injured. Police usually caution clerks and tellers not to confront or struggle with armed gunmen. When the robber regained his weapon he could have turned it on Alam, but fortunately, he did not.
http://www.wrcbtv.com/news/index.cfm?sid=10304 *** - See? This the problem you have when you try to use way too much firepower when you're robbing a store. I mean would he have had this problem if he hadn't been using a huge shotgun? And they're so hard to conceal in your pants too. And then there are those weird stares you get from a lot of girls when you have a shotgun in your pants. Like you're deformed or something.
But this is also another clear indication of the terrible state of education in our country. This was nothing more than a practical example of what happens when our children receive such poor math test scores. Of course they couldn't get the vote count right in Florida, how could they when our kids can't even count money as its being stolen?
This guy no doubt lost count in the store the same way he did when he was in Mrs. Slakenmeir's third grade class. Which led to him having to stay after school and clean the blackboards. Which then led to his poor social skills and bad attitude. Which then led to him robbing conveneince stores. Its vicious cycle.
While I'm certain he doesn't want my advice -- now, I think that when he gets to prison, he should take up some classes that'll lead to a profession that doesn't involve counting numbers. Say like.... oh, the polling statistician in the Bush Administration.......