A quick-thinking employee at a Latino Cellular store in Houston, Texas turned the tables on a robbery suspect last April, and it was all caught on camera.
The Houston Police Department released surveillance video Tuesday that shows the suspect entering the store and walking around the counter towards the cash register.
“It was in broad daylight,” employee Karina Leon told CBS News.
“I was cashing out a customer and she had a baby, I think I was handing her change … then this guy walks in with a hoodie on.”
The suspect demands she open the register but the owner’s wife is heard in the video telling Leon not to and the man heads to the back of the store.
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Meanwhile, Leon quickly escorts the customers out and locks the suspect inside.
“Whenever you lock it from outside, you can’t open it from inside,” she said.
WATCH: Latino Cellular store employee, Karina Leon on the attempted armed-robbery
When the man realizes he’s trapped, he begins to panic and makes multiple attempts to get out.
His first instinct is to fire his gun at the door’s lock.
When that doesn’t work, he attempts to break through the door by ramming into it.
The video then shows him finding the keys behind the counter but failing to unlock the door because of the damage he caused to the lock.
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He paces back and forth and kicks the door a few times before dropping to his knees.
“Please … please … please … I have nothing. I’m sorry … please,” he’s heard saying in the video.
Leon admits at that point she did feel bad for the man.
“I don’t know if he has a family. I don’t know if he has kids but I have a family too,” she said.
“I could’ve been shot. We could’ve been shot.”
He throws his hands up in surrender and eventually the police arrive.
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