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Man Attempting To Rob Cellphone Store Arrested After Store Employee Tricks Him, Locks Him Inside
Boost Mobile employee Jitendra Kumar-Sas bravely turned the tables on a would-be thief, who then allegedly tried and failed to shoot his way out of the store.
An attempted robbery at a Pennsylvania cellphone store was thwarted thanks to the bravery of one quick-witted employee.
Jitendra Kumar-Sas was the only person working at a Boost Mobile store in Philadelphia on Tuesday when an unnamed man entered the store at around 5:30 p.m. and brandished a gun at him, according to WPVI, an ABC affiliate out of Philadelphia.
“He take a gun and put it at my head, ‘Hey give me the money, How much money you have?’ I have no money,” Kumar-Sas told the station. He said he then came up with the idea to tell the gunman that he could get him money if he was able to leave the store.
“‘Can you wait a few minutes, I give you money, I have another employee outside,’” Kumar-Sas recalled saying, according to WPVI.
The would-be robber agreed to wait in the store while Kumar-Sas went and got the money, but once the clerk was outside, he quickly shut and locked the door behind him and pulled down the metal security gate.
Meanwhile, the gunman, realizing that he’d been tricked and was now trapped, fired 10 rounds at the door in an attempt to set himself free.
Investigators said that after that didn’t work, he then fled to the basement of the store and began beating on the connecting door of the store next door, according to NBC Philadelphia. He reportedly tried shooting the lock as well, but that didn’t work either.
“He came up our basement steps but our door is really strong,” Dianna Sullivan, an employee at the store in question, told the station. “He shot to see if he could open the lock.”
Authorities including local police, Homeland Security, and a SWAT Team then arrived on the scene.
Chief Inspector Scott Small with the Philadelphia Police Department told WPVI that SWAT began “using a bullhorn yelled the individual's name, told him to come out, let him know the futility of his actions, he was trapped inside.”
The suspect, a 19-year-old male whose identity authorities have not made public, eventually surrendered around 30 minutes after their arrival, according to NBC 10.
He has not yet been charged, but he is expected to face charges that include attempted robbery, firearms violations, and aggravated assault, WPVI reports.
No one was injured during the ordeal.
Small told WPVI Kumar-Sas “acted very bravely” in his handling of the situation.
One veteran detective told the station, “If all robbers were this dumb, our jobs would be a lot easier.”
