Yes, there are indeed times when life imitates art. Not all of the people you see in movies who fight back even though they’re at risk and turn the tables on the bad guys are the stuff of fiction. Sometimes criminals do pick on the wrong person who won’t be physically or even psychologically intimidated.
Look what happens when a robber with a rifle picks on the wrong person:
If it’s the stuff of movies, what happened next is even more fascinating. Just read WGN’s account:
The victim was looking down on his phone, while walking down the street, when he was approached by behind.
A gunman cocked a shotgun and pointed it at the man’s face.
He took the man’s phone away, but then the victim snatched the shotgun.
“After he took the shotgun away, he chased the guy down the street,” said resident Joe Bonda. “The guy ran right by his car, He didn’t even stop to get in his car and drive away. He chased him down the street and there was another guy in the car that jumped in the driver’s seat and drove off.”
The robber got away, but other cameras in the area captured him in a car circling the area.
Police say the suspect pulled up to the victim and offered to trade the phone for the shotgun.
But the victim turned him down and used the gun to smash the rear windshield instead.
No arrests yet.
The police account on You Tube indicates the robbers have been busy — if unsuccessful — indeed:
The two subjects then fled on Frenchmen to St. Claude and then unknown. The gunman was described as a black male, approximately 16-20 years of age, 6’00” tall with a thin build wearing a black hat and a black t-shirt. Surveillance video captured the robbery on video/audio and can be viewed on youtube.com at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kagO9D… . A similar incident occurred on Friday, April 26, 2013, at or about 12:30am in the 800 block of Touro Street, right around the corner from the aforementioned robbery. In that incident the victim was walking in the 800 block of Touro when he was approached by two unknown young black males. One of the subjects pointed a shotgun at the victim and demanded his property. The subjects then struck the victim three times. The victim fled the scene without relinquishing his property. The victim sustained minor injuries. The victim described the gunman as a young black males and being approximately 5’8″ -5’10” tall with a dark complexion and medium build wearing dark clothing. The victim described the second subject as being a young black male, approximately 5’6″ tall with a medium build, bushy hair and wearing a light shirt. Both subjects were said to be in their early twenties.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.