Crowbar Justice In Melrose, Clerk Fights Off Robber
MELROSE (CBS) -- A would-be robber was beat up with a crowbar when he tried to rob a convenience store in Melrose recently.
But the clerk, Zach Poirier had other ideas. "I have a 7-month-old daughter and I'm not going to let her grow up without a father," said Poirier.
The man can be seen in a video posted on YouTube leading Poirier to the cash register at the Mobil gas station on Main Street.
WBZ-TV's Bill Shields reports
As the would-be robber turns his back, the clerk starts hitting him with a crowbar. The clerk tells WBZ-TV he put the suspect in a headlock while he called police.
"I saw the opportunity to defend myself and I took it," said Poirier. "As soon as he took his attention off me to the money in the drawer, I saw an opportunity and I took it."
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Bernice Corpuz reports
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The robber took off running for the door. Poirier's dad Bill happened to be on the other side. The two tried to tackle him, but he got away.
"He just wasn't a normal person," said Bill Poirier. "He was definitely on something. I tried."
Moments later and just down the road a man fitting the same description robbed a Dunkin Donuts and managed to get away.
Of course, police typically discourage people from engaging robbers.
But Poirier said he'd been robbed about a year-and-a-half ago and wasn't going to let it happen again.
"You see these things like the guy in Boston. They gave him the money but he still shot them," he added.
Poirier said he was scraped up, but otherwise okay.
