Citizen Captures Bank Robber

Did you catch the news about the Michigan man who foiled a bank robbery and captured the robber - because he was (legally) carrying a concealed weapon?

Businessowner Nabil Fawzi was in the bank at the window of the teller he regularly went to. When he observed his own teller acting in an unusual manner, he inquired and was told by his teller that she thought the teller next to her was being robbed.

Mr. Fawzi was licensed to carry a concealed weapon, which he drew and then confronted the robber. He disregarded the robber's statement that he had a bomb, and then he held the robber until the police arrived.

http://blog.mlive.com/annarbornews/2008/06/customer_foils_bank_robbery_at.html

When the cops arrived and saw Mr. Fawzi holding a gun on a person in a chair, they had to figure out what was going on and, fortunately, they didn't just start blasting away. Mr. Fawzi was released after the bank employees and he explained what had just happened and after he showed his permit to carry a gun.

I was in the United Bank of Denver one day in the 1970s right after a teller was robbed. I was second in line behind the robber and had no suspicion of the robbery. He stepped away and I saw that the teller was in shock. By the time she explained she had just been robbed and pointed to the note on the counter, the robber was gone. Although I had a concealed weapons permit at the time, I didn't carry a gun when I was doing my "day" job - selling life insurance.

I did think about it a few times. I wondered what a client might say when I delivered his new policy, if I opened my briefcase to get the policy and let him see a pistol. I can just imagine his words, "What's that for?!!!"

"That's to find out if this policy is really going to pay off."

Never got to say it, though...

© 2008 GUS PHILPOTT