Robbery by Axe

[Hamradioguy]

Two local men were just arrested today for armed robbery. Although Vermont has virtually no restrictions on firearm ownership, these creative fellows held up the clerk of a nearby general store with an axe. They managed to get away with all of $20, but were quickly apprehended. It's still armed robbery, and these two are likely to spend several years in the slammer for their $20 heist if convicted.

When axes are outlawed only outlaws will have axes. (Let's see how quickly this thread turns into a discussion of gun control.....)

[gumboot]

I hope the axe cost them less than $20, otherwise their little operation is running in the red.

[JoeEllison]

Two local men were just arrested today for armed robbery. Although Vermont has virtually no restrictions on firearm ownership, these creative fellows held up the clerk of a nearby general store with an axe. They managed to get away with all of $20, but were quickly apprehended. It's still armed robbery, and these two are likely to spend several years in the slammer for their $20 heist if convicted.

When axes are outlawed only outlaws will have axes. (Let's see how quickly this thread turns into a discussion of gun control.....)

Actually, I was going to relate this to the UK ban on replicas of Japanese swords, based on a grand total of 5 deaths in recent years. I'm all for reasonable gun control, but widespread banning of an entire type of weapon based on a one in a million chance of injury or death seems pretty silly to me.

[Wolfman]

I suggest that we find a few "suggestible" people, and convince them to commit murders with weird items...stab people to death with apple peelers, kill people by pushing a coat hanger in through their ear, strangle people with their ties, etc.

After a "rash" of such murders, we then start campaigns to have those items banned. Demand that certain models of apple peeler be restricted. Criminalize the production of steel coat hangers, legislate that only plastic can be used; enforce a three day waiting period before a person is allowed to buy a tie; etc.

[quixotecoyote]

I could get behind banning ties. How many people do you suppose would have to be strangled?

[Bikewer]

I am familiar with one robbery by bow & arrow; evidently a fellow stuck up a convenience store some years ago with his compound....

Not as strange as the fellow who utilized the bank drive-up window. Yes, he sent in a robbery note via the "fish" and demanded money. The teller obligingly stuffed the thing full of bills and sent it out.
Evidently the bank had a "do not resist" policy.

I think I would have been inclined to send my own note out....

[WildCat]

But not quite as stupid as trying to rob a biker bar with a machete and a knife... http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/02/28/biker.meeting/index.html

[NobbyNobbs]

I am familiar with one robbery by bow & arrow; evidently a fellow stuck up a convenience store some years ago with his compound....



About 15-20 years ago, my good friend's neighbor made the local papers when he awoke one night to hear someone moving around downstairs. He crept down the stairs to find a guy pilfering through the silverware drawer. The owner, who attended Renaissance fairs, played D&D, and was generally a cool type of person, took a longbow down from its display on the wall, strung it, and fit a broadhead arrow to the string.

Calling out for the burglar to stop what he was doing, he had the intruder drop to his knees, shuffle over to the phone, and dial 911 on himself.

When the police arrived, the owner still had him covered from across the room with the longbow.

[dudalb]

I have fantasies of his trying this in a bank where some SCA members, fully armed and in Chain Mail have stopped off to pick up some cash on their way to a event.

[korenyx]

One of those "most shocking" video shows had a clip of a man trying to rob a store with a machete. The woman behind the counter pulled her machete and chased him off.

[bethanythemartian]

I am familiar with one robbery by bow & arrow; evidently a fellow stuck up a convenience store some years ago with his compound....

Not as strange as the fellow who utilized the bank drive-up window. Yes, he sent in a robbery note via the "fish" and demanded money. The teller obligingly stuffed the thing full of bills and sent it out.
Evidently the bank had a "do not resist" policy.

I think I would have been inclined to send my own note out....

At many convenience stores and banks, where resisting robbery can get you killed, it can get you automatically and without questions fired. It's a 'zero-tolerance' kind of thing. My boyfriend works for 7-11, and sometime last year several clerks got fired for using pepper spray to prevent a robbery.