DEL.ICIO.USStore customer beats robber with step ladder
Suspect threatens clerk with knife, takes cash before ‘Caveman’ gets him
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Note to robbers: don’t take a knife to a step ladder fight. That’s what one thief discovered when a customer at an Acworth convenience store on North Main Street bonked him with a ladder used for reaching items on the top shelf.
The robber had just threatened to cut the Quik Thrift store clerk’s neck if he didn’t give him cash, authorities said. The clerk complied.
Then the customer — a regular who is known to store workers as “Caveman” — grabbed the step ladder and smacked the suspect at least once. The robber dropped some of the money and fled.
The customer with the step ladder chased him out of the store.
The incident happened Monday and police were still seeking the suspect on Wednesday. He is described as thin man of medium height who looked about 25. Witnesses said he fled the scene what looked like a black Jeep Cherokee.
Quik Thrift manager Richard Longwell said the clerk was his son-in-law, Nick Dunton, who works evenings at the store. “Caveman,” said Longwell, is a homeless man who apparently doesn’t want the publicity.
“I think the Caveman has gone into hiding,” Longwell said. “I think it’s too much for him.”
Longwell said the man is a regular who hangs around the store often.
“We try to give him something to eat but he won’t take it,” said Longwell.
While the step ladder avenger wasn’t talking Wednesday, a WSB television reporter caught up with him on Monday night.
“I just think it’s something you ought to do,” said the Caveman, whose real is Don Smith, according to WSB.
In recounting the incident for the reporter, Smith said the suspect “come out from around the counter and as soon as he got about halfway down I just let him have it.”
The incident was recorded on store cameras. Anyone who might recognize the suspect is asked to call Acworth police at 770-974-3111.
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