The Things People Do

"They were shouting, 'This is a robbery, give us everything you have. I don't actually remember saying this but my customers -- there were two men and the lady -- told me afterwards that apparently I shouted back at the robbers: 'No way'"
"I wasn't terrified, exactly. I grew up with four brothers, so two people isn't something to be too scared of. But, to be honest, I didn't really know what I was doing.
"Once the guy dropped and I saw him on the floor, bleeding, I felt really badly for him. I saw the robber lying on the floor and thought, 'Oh, man, what did I just do?'
"When he got up he was really shaky. I didn't want to hit him again. He wasn't in this world anymore, and I didn't want to hurt him -- so I just waited.
"Luckily there were some firefighters doing a safety inspection right across the street.
"The police told me not to worry, that what I had done was self-defence. And the detective told me that the guy they arrested was a pretty bad guy, that he had done some bad things in his life."
Simon Zeiter, Canadian Gold & Silver

Oskar Zeiter is proud of his 22-year old son, who actually surprised his father who always thought of him as being the quieter of his sons, unlike his brothers whom he would have expected to react in just the manner Simon did when two thieves entered his Calgary store. It's a store that specializes in the sale of gold bars and coins to collectors and investors.

When they entered and announced what their intentions were, one of the would-be robbers held a crowbar, the other a knife. In response, Simon, who had been busy speaking with an elderly woman whom he described as a "nice old lady", swiftly dialled 911, and availed himself of the aluminum bat kept beside the cash register for just such imagined emergencies.

Then he set about whacking and swatting with it. One of the robbers ended up quite physically stunned on the floor, the other a trifle the worse for wear, fled out of the door, leaving his companion to cope on his own. It just happened that there were a few firemen doing an inspection nearby and they secured the still-dazed man who had hit the floor.

The surveillance video at the Calgary bullion store renders a fairly graphic account of what occurred.

simon zeiter - YouTube

www.youtube.com/user/MyBratwurst


Wait: there's another story:

"This is an 86-year-old woman that walks with the assistance of a cane. A guy jumps through her house, her initial reaction was to whack him with the cane. Then, he holds a knife to her and cuts her."
Hamilton Constable Debbie McGreal-Dinning

A 23-year-old man somehow reached a decision to introduce himself to the elderly woman by diving head first through her front window. He held a knife and used it, while she defended herself. That dissuaded him from remaining on the scene. He turned around and dove head first through a back window of her home. 

Hopped a fence, and a short while later another call came to police.

The same man smashed through a ground-floor apartment window, to confront a 15-year-old boy who was as startled as the elderly woman had been. "He demanded the keys to their car and then collapsed", explained the next-door superintendent, to The Hamilton Spectator.

The man was found by first responders to be in medical distress and he was taken to hospital. And that's where he died. "Obviously putting your body through three different windows, you're going to come out of that with some injuries", explained Constable McGreal-Dinning.