Close X
Monday, December 16, 2024
ADVT 
National

Valiant US Sikh Store-Owner, 59, Fights Off Armed Robber With Only Slipper

Darpan News Desk, 18 Dec, 2015 11:51 AM
    A slipper can be mightier than a gun in the hands of a valiant Sikh store-owner!
     
    In a feat caught on surveillance cameras, the 59-year-old Amrik Singh fought off a shotgun-wielding masked robber using only his slipper in the store at his petrol station in Staatsburg, about 150 km from New York City.
     
    "I'm not really a hero," Amrik told IANS Friday about Tuesday's slipper-shotgun face-off. "And I would not want to be a hero. I am just a working man."
     
    Singh, who immigrated to the US from Doburji in Punjab's Moga district 35 years ago and has owned the Citgo petrol station and store for 19 years, said he did not have a strategy or a conscious plan to confront the gunman. 
     
    But "God told my body to grab the man as he reached for the tray in the cash register", he said.
     
    "When the gunman jumped back, I threw the slipper and hit him on the nose," Singh said. "I ran and caught him and we were like wrestling."
     
     
    Laughing, the turban-wearing Singh said: "He did not expect an old man to fight him. He ran outside and I chased him. He fired a shot at my feet, but it missed and hit the ground and he drove away."
     
    Asked by IANS about Singh's feat, his wife, Baljinder said: "It is shocking and crazy. He had a guardian angel protecting him."
     
    When the would-be robber entered the store with the gun, Singh said he was momentarily taken aback. "After that my mind was clear and I was not nervous at all."
     
    He said he first tried to reason with the man and offered to give him money. "But he demanded $100 dollar bills. I told him I did not have any. He tried remove the coin tray and search under it."
     
    That's when the confrontation caught on the surveillance video that made prime time TV newscasts across the United States Thursday night started.
     
     
    Singh does not plan to take chances if there is another robbery attempt. "I am a US citizen and I am going to apply for a gun licence."
     
    Police don't recommend such acts of bravado. State Trooper Melissa McMorris was quoted by the Daily Freeman as saying "Thank God, the store owner wasn't hurt in the confrontation." 

    MORE National ARTICLES

    New Daily Aeromexico Flights To Vancouver Seen As Boon For Tourism And Business

    New Daily Aeromexico Flights To Vancouver Seen As Boon For Tourism And Business
    Richmond said the non-stop service "opens up" the Latin American market with the airline's "great onward network connections."

    New Daily Aeromexico Flights To Vancouver Seen As Boon For Tourism And Business

    B.C. Judge Sides With Trinity Western University Saying Law Society Erred

     An evangelical Christian university under fire across the country for forbidding sexual intimacy outside of heterosexual marriage has secured a decisive legal victory in its effort to open a law school in British Columbia.

    B.C. Judge Sides With Trinity Western University Saying Law Society Erred

    Wife Of Saudi Blogger Raif Badawi Says He Is On Hunger Strike In Prison

    Wife Of Saudi Blogger Raif Badawi Says He Is On Hunger Strike In Prison
    Ensaf Haidar tells Amnesty International her husband began it on Tuesday to protest the move.

    Wife Of Saudi Blogger Raif Badawi Says He Is On Hunger Strike In Prison

    Canada's Environment Minister Catherine McKenna Worried About Rights Of Indigenous Peoples

    Canada's Environment Minister Catherine McKenna Worried About Rights Of Indigenous Peoples
    PARIS — Federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna has expressed deep concerns about opposition at the international climate conference to what she called a "critically important" issue — the rights of Aboriginal Peoples.

    Canada's Environment Minister Catherine McKenna Worried About Rights Of Indigenous Peoples

    Chilliwack Woman Driving In Wrong Direction Dies After Head-On Collision On Highway 1

    Chilliwack Woman Driving In Wrong Direction Dies After Head-On Collision On Highway 1
    RCMP say the truck was travelling westbound in an eastbound lane when it collided head-on with a semi-truck just before midnight on Tuesday.

    Chilliwack Woman Driving In Wrong Direction Dies After Head-On Collision On Highway 1

    Sea Otter That Recovered From Gunshot Wounds Dies At Vancouver Aquarium

    Sea Otter That Recovered From Gunshot Wounds Dies At Vancouver Aquarium
    Walter, also affectionately known as Wally, was rescued from a Tofino, B.C., shoreline on Oct. 19, 2013, after locals reported a sea otter that appeared lethargic.

    Sea Otter That Recovered From Gunshot Wounds Dies At Vancouver Aquarium