A man learned the hard way that he shouldn’t try to rob Big Daddy’s Pizza.
A video circulating online shows an attempted robbery in progress at the Saint John pizza shop, located on Lansdowne Avenue.
The security footage shows a hooded man at the cash register speaking with an employee with a hand in his pocket.
As store manager Galen Price recalls: “Terry, my employee, said, ‘Would you mind removing that hood, please?’,” said Price. “The guy said, ‘No, I’m not taking my hood off.’ So Terry said, ‘You’re going to have to get out of the store.'”
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Terry is then seen backing away from the suspect towards the oven, out of sight from the security camera.
“(The suspect) said, ‘I got a weapon here,'” said Price, “and Terry said, ‘So do I.'”
Terry is then seen taking a couple steps towards the suspect – pizza paddle in hand – and hitting him over the head.
The suspect attempts to flee the store, but Terry flings the pizza paddle at him for good measure.
Price says the attempted robbery has generated quite a bit of attention.
“People keep walking into the store asking, ‘Where’s the paddle man?'”
The security footage has also been circulating online. A post on the Big Daddy’s Pizza Facebook page has been viewed nearly 30,000 times within 24 hours.
Price says the man attempted to rob three different places that night. The Saint John Police Force says the suspect was arrested a short time later and appeared in court the next day.
“He wasn’t the brightest of thieves,” said Price.