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Main Page Florida Costco Shoppers Take Down Thief
(Click here to view the original thread on the MassCops Message Board)

Posted by: kwflatbed

Story by local10.com

A man who police said used a toy gun to try to hold-up holiday shoppers at a warehouse store over the weekend got more than he bargained for.
Witnesses said the man tried to rob or carjack at least three different people in the parking lot of the busy Costco store in North Miami Beach. According to witnesses, the man grabbed one woman and beat and choked her as he tried to take her car. She was able to fight the man off, and he ran through the parking lot and tried to carjack two other vehicles, witnesses said.
Pastor Abraham Rivero was at the Costco store with his wife. He said, "We heard a lady yelling in the parking lot and when we got over to her, we saw she had just been attacked by a guy and I went after him."
Witnesses said that the man, later identified as 57-year-old Robert Christianson, was behaving erratically and was flailing the gun around.
Rivera said he suspected that the gun was not real.
"I just told him 'I think your gun is fake. If it's real, just shoot me.' And that's when he came at me and that's when I took him down," Rivera said.
Bail bondsman Rick Vierro, who was also shopping at the store, got handcuffs out of his car and used them to restrain Christianson until police could arrest him.
Another man who was shopping at the store caught the whole incident on camera.
Police officers were in the immediate area as part of a special patrol that is designed to cut down on crime during the holiday shopping season. Officer took Christianson into custody.
"You kind of think: 'Don't get involved,'" Rivera said, "But then you think if you don't do something, somebody else could get hurt. You don't think about being a hero. You just think about trying to help."
Police said Christianson has a lengthy record, including assault and grand theft. He is now also charged with armed carjacking.

Posted by: frank

Quote:

Rivera said he suspected that the gun was not real.
"I just told him 'I think your gun is fake. If it's real, just shoot me.' And that's when he came at me and that's when I took him down," Rivera said.
"You kind of think: 'Don't get involved,'" Rivera said, "But then you think if you don't do something, somebody else could get hurt. You don't think about being a hero. You just think about trying to help."

Nice work on the guy's part, but it's a hell of a way to not get involved...and if the guy's gun was real, he'd probably be dead.

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