Pepper Spray Stops A Retail Store Armed Robbery

Recently, at a convenience store in Derry, New Hampshire the store surveillance camera caught a suspect showing a gun and demanding money from the store owner-armed robbery! The store owner reflexively reached next to the cash register and grabbed his pepper spray and sprayed the perpetrator in the face. The perpetrator ran out the door and got away-for 12 minutes-until he crashed his car into a utility pole.

The background of the story is that back in November, the store owner was given a can of pepper spray by one of his good customers after his first store robbery. The customer felt bad that his friend, the store owner, was robbed. He said it made him feel good to give the pepper spray to his hard-working friend trying to make a living.

The retail store business is a tough business anyhow with shoplifting and above-average incidences of robbery. Armed robberies are less frequent, but the store owner was the victim of two of them in four months.

The attempted robber was caught of course. The reason he ran into the utility poll was directly the result of one of the side effects of the pepper spray-excessive tearing of the eyes so badly that they shut. Pepper spray also causes intense pain, coughing and choking and big-time shortness of breath. But in this case it was the tearing of the eyes that did him in. Police found him trapped under power lines.

In a case like this deadly force may seem a little bit over-the-top but store owners have a perfect right to self defense. I give the man credit for making a move when somebody had a gun pointed right at him.

The whole incident only lasted a few seconds on the video. If the man hadn't crashed he may have gotten away because the video was not conclusive in identifying the armed robber.

Moral of the story is the next time you're in Derry, New Hampshire stay away from the convenience store owned by Mr. Patel, especially if you're thinking of robbing it.

Pepper sprays are one of a group of self defense products that are nonlethal in nature. They provide citizens with an alternative to deadly force. They disable an assailant for up to 45 minutes providing them time to get away from a dangerous situation or in this case of an armed robbery disable the robber, forcing him to flee.

Pepper sprays use a derivative of cayenne pepper called oleoresin capsicum is one of the hottest peppers in the world. When are you getting one?