You may have seen some of this video circulating on Twitter/X yesterday. Today we have a bit more insight into where this happened. It was at a 7-11 store in Stockton, CA.
A would-be robber at one of the chain’s Stockton stores—it wasn’t clear which one—wearing a dirty white T-shirt, blue jeans, tan construction-worker boots and a blue scarf partially covering his head and face can be seen pushing a 20-gallon trash can on wheels behind a counter, video showed.
As the suspect grabs and tosses fistfuls of cigarette boxes and tobacco products from shelves behind the store counter, store workers can be seen backing away warily from the man, who appears to reach threateningly toward his back pocket as if he is carrying a weapon.
Meanwhile, the man filming tells the clerks not to interfere and to call the police.
That’s not quite what happened. Watch the first clip:
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Notice the guy filming is initially trying to get in on the action, “Can I get a swisher?” He’s asking the thief to throw him some Swisher Sweets and I don’t think he’s planning to pay if he gets them as the two guys running the store are pretty occupied.
But the thief is also occupied and ignores his request. Instead he keeps pretending he has a gun in his back pocket which he’s threatening to pull out if the managers interfere.
Then the camera guy starts giving advice to the managers. “Just let him go. There’s nothing you can do,” he says.
But pretty quickly one guy grabs the thief’s wrist and pulls him to the ground the other starts hitting him with a broom handle. After about 5-6 hits the thief is ready to call it a day. But as you can see in part 2, the guy with the broom handle just keeps swinging.
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Now suddenly the guy filming is on the side of the store managers and is asking the thief “Are you done?” to which the thief assures him he is. “I’ll go. Let me get up,” he said. Manager #2 waves the other manager with the broom handle off. The thief has clearly had enough but manager #2 seems to be still thinking about the gun the thief claimed he had moments earlier. He doesn’t want to let him go. In part 3 of this the guy filming negotiates his release once it’s clear there is no gun. As the thief stumbles out, he has one more request…
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“Can I get a soda?” Hell, no you can’t get a soda!
Anyway, I think this thief had it coming to a point but the guy with the broom should have stopped once he cried uncle. At that point, he’s not subduing a threat, he’s exacting punishment and some of those final hits on the shins and knees were unnecessary. Even manager #2 was telling him to stop. He should have listened. This is literally why we have police to deal with these situations instead of leaving it up to angry parties involved.
But I do wonder how many times these guys have been robbed. Maybe they have good reason to be angry. It can’t be fun having to stare down people who claim they’ll kill you if you try to stop them from robbing you blind. And yes, I know it’s not their merchandise but it’s their job on the line. They are the ones being threatened.
Stockton police said they were aware of the incident but that’s all they’ve said so far.
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