An armed man in a ski mask got more than he bargained for when he allegedly tried to stick up a 7-Eleven in San Leandro, Calif., on Friday night.
Instead of opening the cash register and handing over the money, two clerks managed to disarm the man and chase him out of the store in a scene that was caught on tape.
"I saw the guy coming around the corner and I thought he was going to use the sink,” one of the employees, who gave his name only as Mark, told KTVU. “When he passed the sink, I turned and saw the gun. He demanded cash and I held up my hands. He started swinging the gun back and forth. When the gun got close to him, I saw my opportunity. I grabbed it by both ends and just yanked it out of his hand.”
The robber managed to break free, and the video shows him hightailing it out of the store with the two clerks hot on his trail.
The suspect has not yet been caught.
"If you look back, some people say hero, some people say brave, others say stupid," Mark told the San Francisco Chronicle. "It's a little bit of both -- of all three, actually. I don't know if it was the right thing, but it got a gun off the street."
As it turns out, the gun wasn't loaded, according to KGO. But police say the clerks were lucky.
"We are extremely lucky no one was injured," Lt. Robert McManus said in a news release cited by the San Jose Mercury News. "Although we do not advocate that anyone approach someone with a weapon such as a knife or firearm, the quick actions of both employees disarmed the suspect and took a gun off the street that could have been used in another robbery or a shooting. Their actions were very brave."
Watch the raw footage below.
(h/t Fugitive Watch)