In what could’ve been a devastating smash-and-grab robbery, a 73-year-old consignment store worker saved the day by scaring off the would-be robbers with a firearm.
Albert Marcu, who works at Estates Consignments in Pleasant Hill, California, was working last Monday when a woman came into the store and began looking for security cameras while talking on the phone.
Video surveillance shows a group of men, who were associated with the woman, busting through the door after her, with one of them carrying a sledgehammer.
The attempted robbers ran to the jewelry section where they were met by Marcu holding a revolver, which led them to run out of the store and leave in waiting vehicles.
“I didn’t want to shoot anybody, but I have to make a statement. Too many bad things have happened. Stores get robbed left and right,” Marcu told local outlet KTVU. “I have a message for all business owners, to take example and fight for themselves, because if you don’t fight for yourself, nobody will.”
Police arrived on the scene but not before the thieves fled the scene.
Marcu said that recent incidents in the Bay Area have forced him to be hyper-vigilant of potential robberies, noting another jewelry robbery at a consignment store in Danville, California just one week prior.
Many applauded Marcu’s bravery and decision to pull out the firearm in the face of potential danger.
“The old man stood his ground, nothing but respect,” one viewer wrote.
“Much respect to this shop owner,” another said.
The suspects have not yet been publicly identified.
This story originally appeared on Entrepreneur
