Improvised weapons

/ hsoi

A tape dispenser as an improvised weapon

Man comes in to store, pulls knife, clerk attempts to foil the robbery but doesn’t quite get it, but when the robber comes close enough, he gets whacked in the head with the closest object — a tape dispenser. And runs away.

A few things to learn:

  • It’s not about the tool, it’s about the person in the fight. The clerk wasn’t willing to just roll over and “give him what he wanted”. He was willing to fight and protect that which was important to him.
  • Large objects applied to the head hurt. 🙂
  • Granted I’d rather have a better tool than a tape dispenser, but he made do with what he had available. Far lot better than an empty hand. So while it’s not about the tool, the tool sure helps give you a leg up. The better the tool, the better the leg.
  • Stay cool. Notice how cool and collected the clerk was the entire time?
  • Watch their hands. Hands kill.

5 thoughts on “Improvised weapons”

  1. Is naitivity ignorant bravery? Had the tables turned the clerk may have regretted his decision to resist ,and had the robber pulled a gun, the clerk may have died for a few dollars.,I always wonder if instances like this are reaction or concious decision , I do respect the bravery in the face of a very intimidating situation.

    • Perhaps. We can’t know how it would go. We can’t know the motivations. Maybe the store clerk was the shop owner and felt there was more at stake than just a few bucks in the drawer. Maybe there was more in the drawer than a few bucks. Maybe the clerk “read” something about the robber that helped him realize he could win the fight. There’s a lot that we do NOT know about the situation.

      But this is something I touched on in an article just a few days ago, that you need to figure out what’s important to you, what’s worth fighting for, what’s worth dying for. It’s something you need to know beforehand, so it’s not just reaction but is conscious decision.

  2. I have heard such improvised weapons as the tape dispenser referred to as “Alley Apples”. An “Alley Apple” is whatever comes to hand, be it rock, stick, or other heavy object.

    And as for Naivete, if you don’t resist you are relying on the robber’s better nature, and it may be that in that split second between giving the robber what he wants and the robber leaving, he decides that this time he doesn’t want the trouble of getting fingered in a lineup.
    As my Uncle, the policeman said about the man who shot him with his service revolver, “I had arrested him a number of times before and knew he’d go quietly, but that morning I guess he decided he absolutely did not want to go to the station with me.”

    Besides, as they say about robberies, DON’T GET INTO THE CAR. They may only want to rob you quietly somewhere else, but that’s not the way to bet.

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