Bodega owner turns tables on robber

BAYONNE (WABC) -- A robber in New Jersey got quite a shock when he tried to get money from a bodega.

Not only did the owner fight back, but a Good Samaritan jumped in to help catch the robber.

It happened Tuesday afternoon around 4 o'clock. Fazle Abrar was behind the counter of his corner deli in Bayonne when a man came through the door wearing a black mask and carrying a gun in his hand.

"He told me 300 dollars. Give me all the money. I'm going to shoot you and kill you," Abrar said.

But the Pakistani native and deeply religious man wanted the gunman to know this was wrong, so he said no, grabbed for the gun and chased the masked man out of his store.

Across the street and down the block at the same time was another man.

"I see a man with a mask on running down the street and the owner of the deli running after him with his hands up," Justin said.

Justin knew a guy in a mask couldn't be up to any good, so he joined the chase.

"I grabbed the gun and he put him to the ground," Abrar said. "When we were there, we pulled off the mask. So he's a guy who used to come to the store."

Ryan Lipinski, 28, is now in police custody.

"It was not about the money. The guy who helped me, I gave him 500 dollars and told him don't do this thing," Abrar said.

That's right. He gave Justin 500 dollars, twice the amount that was in the register.

He thanked Justin and told him not to risk his life like that in the future.

"He's such a nice man," Justin said. "I'm actually moving. The money helped me more than he could ever know. It was a blessing. It was a blessing."

A blessing all around, especially since no one got hurt.

If giving the guy who helped him 500 dollars wasn't generous enough, Fazle said the mother of the man who tried to rob him came in the next day to apologize. He said not only is it ok, but please take some free food.

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