Store Clerk With a Machete vs. a Crook with a Gun: Guess Who Wins

You know the old saying: Never bring a knife to a gun fight. But in Long Island, NY, one crook learned you don't bring a gun to knife fight. Especially when it's at the Stop & Shop Deli on Crooked Hill Road in Brentwood.

That store, the owner told the New York Post, has been robbed more than a dozen times in the last 14 years. So when a man in a black jacket came in on September 25, pointed a gun, and demanded money, the store owner's nephew who was working at the time decided he wasn't having any of it. Instead of handing over the money, the clerk bent down, whipped out a machete, and chased the robber away.

(Source: YouTube screen shot)

(Source: YouTube screen shot)

(Source: YouTube screen shot)

(Source: YouTube screen shot)

But here's what's more amazing: when the clerk bent down to grab his knife, the New York Post says, he actually dodged a literal bullet. While the clerk said he initially thought the gun was a fake, they found out later that at the moment he went to get his knife, the crook squeezed off a round.

Watch the surveillance video that captured it all:

“He thought it was a fake gun – it was a very small gun, so that’s why he reacted like that,” Walter Martinez, another clerk at the store, told WLNY-TV.

“I’m proud of him. He did good but it was too dangerous," store owner Elena Alvarado, 48, added to the Post. "He put himself at risk but I’m glad he’s OK. He’s lucky he didn’t get hurt."

Cops, too, have been hesitant to praise his actions.

“The clerk got very lucky," Suffolk County Detective Lt. Kevin Beyrer told the Post. "We would recommend in a situation like this to comply with the person’s demands. The clerk, in this case, got extremely lucky."

WLNY says Alvarado got the machete a month ago but now has gotten rid of it since the incident.

The suspect is still at large, although Alvarado told the Post she beleives the man is a regular customer and may have returned as one since the attempted robbery.