A Calgary jewelry store clerk who managed to knock a would-be robber out cold with a baseball bat late last month says he wasn't afraid to stand up to the bad guy, but at the same time "didn't really know" what he was doing.
Simon Zeiter, whose family owns Canadian Gold & Silver in northeast Calgary, was caught on surveillance video clocking one robber in the head with an aluminum baseball bat, while another robber ran away.
Zieter, 22, told the National Post he was waiting on an older lady on June 28 when the thieves burst through the door, one with a knife, the other a crowbar.
“They were shouting, ‘This is a robbery, give us everything you have,’" he said.
“I don’t actually remember saying this but my customers — there were two men and the lady — told me afterwards that apparently I shouted back at the robbers: ‘No way.’”
After a quick call to 911, Zeiter grabbed a bat and lunged at one of the attackers, who was trying to stab him.
The robbers continued to try to gain access behind the counter of the store, smashing the glass cases.
"I tried to swing for the first guy but I missed and the other guy was picking up jewelry, so he wasn't looking, and that's when I got him in the head and he got knocked out," Zeiter told CBC Eyeopener.
Zeiter, a German immigrant, told the National Post he prefers soccer and volleyball to baseball, but he certainly has a way with the bat – his mighty swing leveled the robber unconscious for a few moments.
“I saw the robber lying on the floor and thought, ‘Oh, man, what did I just do?’ When he got up he was really shaky. I didn’t want to hit him again. He wasn’t in this world anymore, and I didn’t want to hurt him — so I just waited," Zeiter told the National Post
The injured's partner-in-crime fled on foot, but not before a store customer jabbed him in the stomach with the legs of a bar stool – lion-tamer style – and Zeiter took a swing at him with the baseball bat.
"I got him in the back with the baseball bat, but not strong enough. He didn't go down," he told the CBC.
Then Zeiter, with the help of other store employees and patrons, managed to subdue the woozy, but awake, robber who just took a bat to the head.
Firefighters, who happened to be doing an inspection across the street, were called to help keep the disoriented suspect in the store until police arrived.
Zeiter told CBC the police advised him not to take a vigilante approach should a similar situation ever occur again, but he believes he made the right choice.
"In my opinion, if you don't do anything then you just promote bad people doing it again, you know?"
Nothing was stolen in the robbery and one suspect has been charged.
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