© Photo by James Carbone / June 2, 2009Mohammad Sohail, 62, shows how he turned the tables on a bat-wielding man who stormed into his Shirley store demanding cash.
Shirley store owner's compassion for would-be robber
When a bat-wielding masked man walked into a Shirley convenience store and demanded cash, store owner Mohammad Sohail pulled out a rifle, ordered the man to get on the floor - and then, he says, found himself overcome with compassion.
Sohail, moved by the would-be robber's tale that hard economic times had pushed him to the edge, gave the unidentified man $40 and a loaf of bread and asked him to promise never to commit a robbery again, the store owner said.
"He started crying," Sohail, said of the intruder's reaction once the store owner pulled out his rifle. "He was saying: 'I have no money. I have no food. I have no job. I have to take care of my family.' "
