Not a good idea to mess around in a free state like Florida.
Yeah, this dude and his buddy thought they could trick the clerk at this Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, Family Dollar by telling him, at close, that they needed to be let in the store because one of them forgot their phone. And at first, it seemed like it might work. Here's how it went down.
Nicolas Richard Lee Deas, 20, of Fort Lauderdale, and another man reportedly approached a Family Dollar employee Sept. 13 around 10 p.m. as staff closed for the day, Local 10 News reported.
Deas reportedly claimed to the employee he left his cellphone in the store and needed to run in quickly to grab it. The employee let Deas and the other man inside, but the situation quickly devolved into chaos.
"Give me the money, or I will kill you," Deas told the employee, according to a Fort Lauderdale Police arrest report.
Yeah, they got in and quickly forced the clerk to open up the store's safe, allegedly pistol-whipping the poor guy while stuffing $1,200 into a bag.
(That's a rookie move: Remember, kids, if you're in a "progressive" city like Los Angeles, keep the theft below $950 so you don't get jail time)
But help was on the way.
Unbeknownst to Deas and his accomplice, a neighboring store owner in the shopping complex heard the disturbance and jumped into action.
Luckily, this neighboring store owner keeps a gun in his store, which usually helps in situations like these (libs everywhere are shocked, I know). So he walked in, gun drawn, and told the perp to drop the weapon and get on the floor, which, because the man had a gun pointed at him, he did, probably immediately.
Our gun-carrying hero then held the man at gunpoint until the police arrived.
Deas was taken into custody without bond on charges of armed robbery, aggravated assault with intent to commit a felony, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, grand theft of a firearm and illegally carrying a concealed firearm. The gun Deas used during the alleged attempted robbery was stolen, according to police.
Nice work, good guy with a gun. Maybe Family Dollar will start keeping a pistol of their own in the store just in case this happens again.
P.S. Now check out our latest video 👇
