Store Clerk Refuses Robber

Store clerk refuses to hand over cash, talks tough to robber, risking life. Cops disapprove.

STORE ROBBER ESCAPES IN DAYTIME STRIKE

March 12, 1987—A robber got away with relatively little cash after a clerk called his bluff—he appeared to be carrying a gun in his pocket—at the Odd Lot Trading store, Flatlands Avenue and East 92nd Street, around 5 p.m. Tuesday, according to a police officer at the scene.

Police Officer Larry Norvin said a white male had demanded money from a clerk who did not believe the man was really carrying a gun, even though he appeared to be. “She (the clerk) told him, ‘Get outa here!’” said Officer Norvin.

The robber then grabbed some money from a cash drawer and fled, departing in an automobile. There was at least one witness who saw the vehicle’s license plate number, Officer Norvin said.

The thief got “a couple of twenties,” according to Officer Norvin. He noted that the robber had never actually claimed to have a gun.

The officer indicated that it may have been dangerous for the clerk to challenge the robber. “It’s not even her money, and even if it was…” he said.

The store is in the process of installing metal shutters over its windows, a response to two nighttime break-ins at the store earlier t his year, according to a spokesman for the store.

A complete report of the incident was not available at press time.

Looking Back

Another slice of life I’m happy to have in my files. I love the holdup victim’s retort: “Get outa here!”

As I remember, this store was on the same block as our newspaper office. And what I picture is that, like almost every store in Canarsie, it was run-down and dirty, as much a little fort as a business. I seem to remember its windows were small ones, running along the wall just below roof-height, and that the building was cinder block. The interior a dark tumble of disorderly shelves and boxes scattered in the aisles. An utterly depressing excuse for a store, but typical in that village. And a bit boggling to think that some worker in such a lorn establishment would risk their life to defend whatever treasure its cash register could have contained, and not even that worker’s own treasure.

This story was first published in The Canarsie Courier, a Brooklyn Newspaper, in March 1987