Your insane neighbor just grabbed a gun out of a mugger's hands

This guy is insane. Even the mugger thinks so. But I think most of us mugging victims have fantasized about doing something similarly reckless that we WISH we would have done at the time:

A 35-year-old man turned the tables on a would-be thief by grabbing the gun from him during a mid-afternoon robbery attempt in Crown Heights.

The man was walking home the Franklin Avenue train station at about 2:15 p.m. on Feb. 12, when he noticed someone following him. The thief came up to him and took out a silver handgun. But instead of giving up his wallet, the man grabbed the gun, according to a police report.

“Are you (expletive) crazy? Give me that gun back!” the thief said. But the man held fast and the thief ran off, according to the report.

http://prospectheights.patch.com/articles/man-grabs-gun-from-mugger-on-st-charles-place

Awesome. Idiots.

2:30 in the afternoon!

Extremely foolish. This guy is lucky to be alive.

too bad he didn't shot the mugger.

Jack Krohn said:

Extremely foolish. This guy is lucky to be alive.

You mean the mugger? I agree

Oh man . . . definitely could've gotten himself killed, but this dude is sort of my hero. I've fantasized about doing something like that ever since I got jacked a couple years ago.

I'd like to think he grabbed the gun before it was pointed at him.

He knew he was being followed, so maybe the scenario was one in which the "wanna be mugger" was pulling out the gun and the "about to be mugged guy" rushed him and grabbed it.

I think it is safe to assume the "wanna be mugger" was not an off duty cop: They go thru lots of training to prevent anyone from ever successfully grabbing their guns.

Nor was the mugger a person with firearms training, which indeed the intended victim may have had -- anyone familiar with handguns knows how long it takes to draw, aim, and fire (not to mention chambering a round, if you haven't done so already).

I'll go out on a limb here and propose that most muggers are all bark and no bite. They are cowards who rely on the fear and cooperation of their victims, and crumble in the face of determined resistance.

Sadly, muggers are also people who tend to place very little value on life (theirs or their victims).

I would love to see some really good video of the situation, that way I could determine for myself whether the circumstances were "just right" for such a move, or whether the "wanna be mugger" and the "about to be mugged guy" were in the same, low functioning league.

Who knows, maybe they were both geniuses!

...we may never know.

I disagree that muggers place little value on their life. The fact that he ran once disarmed proves quite the opposite.

True, that does show that the wanna be mugger placed some value on on his life once he perceived it as being threatened.

I guess "little value" is a relative concept, I think my position stems from my own lack of willingness to risk prison or death due as a result of trying to score some cash by mugging someone at 2:30 in the afternoon.

I also suspect I was also defining "life" in not just biological terms, but in social terms: ...from what I know of prison, I do not think I would like it.

But, now that I think about it, I guess running shows he wished to preserve his present social life as well.

Any idea how a criminal goes about telling their friends that they failed at a mugging?

the love themselves more than anyone. cause they willing to kill people for pennies while buying themselves junk.

I think if he stuck if right at my chest I would definitely take it. It he was smart and gave himself a couple feet, then he'd have my wallet.

Hopefully any would-be muggers aren't reading this thread and taking notes

I tend to think of muggers as being near the bottom of the robbery food chain.

And I would like to think that those who are diligent (such as those who read in order to improve their skill set) are able to move on to more profitable sub fields (such as robbing a check cashing place, or a drug dealer). However, with the economic downturn, such advancement opportunities may no longer be achievable.

Does anyone think this wanna be mugger will learn anything from being robbed of his gun?

Will he stand further away?

Will he rob at night when victims may be less confident?

Will he learn to grab his gun firmly, with both hands?

what does it mean to be safe in this place?

Hopefully he gets hit by the 2/3.

tsarina said:

what does it mean to be safe in this place?

Not even those with guns and bad intent are safe! In this situation, some guy had the nerve to steal his property right out his hands in broad daylight!

Then, after taking it, the police likely took it from him.

The robber is robbed by a random guy on the street, who is then robbed by the police!

When will it end!

I wonder if he got the $5,000 reward for turning the gun over to the police. If so, talk about one lucky dude.

What I want to know, is what he did after swiping the gun.

Picture this scenario:

I've just swiped your gun, and you run away. I then call the police to tell them "some dude just tried to rob me with a gun".

While I wait from the police to arrive, am I clear headed enough to realize that I should not be holding it in my hand when they arrive?

....Our neighbor either got really lucky on several fronts, or is an expert at keeping him safe in dangerous situations.

There's no $5,000 reward for turning over a gun.

There is a $1,000 reward for information leading to arrest of someone illegally possessing a gun. Which, technically, our hero would have been guilty of after disarming the mugger.

He's lucky the police didn't charge him with criminal possession of a weapon, given their often arbitrary and paradoxical notions of discretion.

I've been told that anyone can turn in a unwanted gun at local precincts, but that you are not paid for doing so. The police only pay for guns at buyback events.

So, had this guy found a gun on a street or brought one here from VA, he could have saved it until the next gun buyback event and received $, no questions asked.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/crime_prevention/gun_buy_back_2012.shtml

However, because he took it from someone who tried to mug him and then called the police to tell them how his afternoon was going, he is not eligible for $?