Wild Surveillance Video: Store Owner Beats Back Would-Be Robbers With a Stick

A Massachusetts mini-mart owner used a long stick to beat back a pair of masked men armed with knives that were attempting to rob his store Friday night.

It was around 9:30 p.m. when the two assailants burst into the St. Elias Mini Market in New Bedford -- about 60 miles south of Boston -- the South Coast Today reported. Surveillance footage showed one of the men jumping on the counter demanding cash.

That's when owner Nicholas Dawoud came out swinging, chasing him out.

The second suspect was still in the store and the two men started circling each other, with Dawoud attempting to fend him off. After several moments the suspect managed to grab the stick from the owner, so Dawoud picked up a metal rack to defend himself. The altercation continued off-camera, with neighbors coming in to help before police arrived.

Dawoud told the newspaper it was the second time in less than a week that armed men entered his store to rob it; on July 30, he said, a man put a knife to his wife's side and demanded money. He complied, handing over nearly $2,000, but when Friday night came around he wasn't going to let it happen again.

“I give him money, no I give money to my kids, I work for my kids,” Dawoud, a Lebanese immigrant, told CBS Boston affiliate WBZ-TV. “I work very hard. In ten years I have no days off, no vacation.”

See the full surveillance video below: