Pepper Spray Sends Robber Running
Derry, New Hampshire Police reported that another store robbery was thwarted by simple pepper spray.
A man walked into convenient store in Derry, NH and demanded cash from the store owner. The store owner sprayed the would-be robber in the face with pepper spray instead.
What happened next illustrates how pepper spray affects people’s physiology, reflexes and behavior. Read on…
According to WMUR channel 9 that reported the story here:
“Store owner Sumant Patel, however, said he wasn’t nervous because a similar robbery four months ago prompted someone to give him a gift.
“I wasn’t scared,†Patel said. “My friend gave me pepper spray, ‘so that you can save yourself.’â€
Patel said he put the pepper spray to good use and sent the would-be robber running out the door.
Patel gave the police a description of the man’s car, a dark gray Nissan, which is very similar to a car that wrecked on English Range Road just minutes after the attempted robbery.
The car, which police said was speeding, struck a utility pole and brought wires down across the road.”
Here you have it:
When hit with pepper spray a person is seriously disoriented:
– it’s hard to open the eyes, it’s hard to see what’s around, some report nearly complete blackout;
– it’s hard to breathe, pepper spray dilates membranes in nasal passages that may restrict air flow into the lungs;
– sharp acute pain does not allow to concentrate on anything, everything is burning and demands immediate relief as first priority.
Tell me if this is a right condition to do anything? Rob a store? Fight someone? Rape somebody? Drive a car? — No way.
The would-be robber could not continue with the robbery, tried to flee in a car and crashed it into a pole.
He was apprehended shortly after and sent to a hospital from the car accident scene.
Pepper spray in the face throws maybe a little monkey wrench into the cogs of a crime being committed but it’s surely a powerful one to make ti stop altogether.
Kudos to Sumant Patel, the store owner, who was prepared (got his pepper spray in advance and kept it handy) and cool enough to deploy it when he had a chance.
