Customer Breaks Up Armed Robbery At NH Pharmacy
MANCHESTER, NH (CBS) - A Manchester, New Hampshire man helped thwart a robbery at a local pharmacy by tackling the suspect who was demanding drugs at gunpoint.
Police say thirty-year-old Nicole Chase walked into Ken's Pharmacy on Elm Street and handed the pharmacist a note demanding Percocet. Police said the note also indicated she had a gun.
Thomas Farrell, who was in the store picking up a prescription, witnessed the encounter and says the pharmacist challenged the woman by pulling out a gun and pointing it at her. It was then she threatened to shoot an elderly customer. "She said I'll kill him in five minutes," according to another pharmacist Darcy Klein who was also in the store.
Farrell says he heard the woman say, "You're not doing it fast enough, and she started to count down." But he was observant enough to notice the weapon was a plastic pellet gun and he took matters into his own hands, striking Chase on the wrist to get the gun down and then tackling her to the floor, knocking over a card rack in the process and spilling into the aisle.
"It was kind of spur of the moment. I'm not sure if I did the right thing at first or not," he said.
Klein had called 9-1-1 and they were able to hold the robber until police arrived. "I just wanted to keep her subdued thinking that maybe we could help her," said Farrell.
Klein calls Farrell a hero but also says she scolded him. "I said don't do that again. He said I knew it wasn't a real gun, but I didn't know that and at that point I was afraid he'd get hurt," said Klein.
Chase was arraigned today on robbery charges.
