Prior to becoming a journalist, in my early 20s I worked in retail. I guess I’ve always liked being around people and dealing with the public.
A golden rule of working in retail if you are under threat or getting robbed it’s important to comply with the person so you don’t get injured.
Well, I found an interesting story of a man in 1930s Lloydminster, who took a robbery as a challenge.
No one would be surprised to hear that Lloydminster has always had its issues with crime. It’s located as a major stopping point on the Trans-Canada Highway network, it’s the hub of some small neighbouring cities, it can easily attract crime.
Back in. Aug. 30, 1934, the Lloydminster Times, the newspaper of the day reported on an attempted bank heist. The title of the article, “Dillinger 2nd Attempts to Hold Up Bank,” indicated this was not the man’s first try at a life of crime.
The man was a local and entered the bank manager’s office and handed him a note asking for $1,000. It also threatened that if he wasn’t out of there soon more men with guns would enter.
A “Mr. Rowland” was the bank manager and he got a quick view of the gun. As I stated before if you’re ever being robbed at gunpoint you should comply with the person robbing you. Well Rowland had another idea, he grabbed a nearby ashtray and walloped the robber with it before wrestling him to the ground and calling for help.
The gun, it turned out, was just a wooden fake as RCMP quickly discovered. One quote I found regarding the incident reads as follows, “An ashtray was the weapon of choice for a quick-thinking bank manager fending off a bumbling bank robbery.” The robber claimed he was forced into it by the people mentioned in the note. Ultimately, he was sentenced to 16 months in jail.
Taking matters into your own hands is never the answer, you have no idea what the outcome could be. But for Rowland, the ashtray was enough to knock the last of the brains out of his would-be robber.
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