Don’t mess with a woman’s anger.
Praise is pouring in for Indian-origin storeowner Hemalata Patel for taking on two thieves with a chair in England.
The 56-year-old woman neutralized the attempt of two machete-wielding thieves to rob her shop last week, reported PTI.
Patel, who is running her K and L Newsagent store in Winsford, Cheshire, was confronted by two robbers hidden behind masks while she was sitting on the counter. They shouted at her and started damaging the shop. Not losing her cool, she picked up a chair and chased them out of the shop.
“The shop was empty when two lads walked in holding the machetes. They were shouting at me and I just told them, ‘if you need it then take it’ but one of them banged the machete on the counter and started to damage the shop so I just lost the plot,” Patel said.
“We have a chair that we leave out for some of our older customers so I picked it up and chased them out of the shop while I shouted at them, ‘okay, if you ask for it then you are going to get it and I’m coming for you’,” she said.
The robbers had escaped when her husband 63-year-old Dhirubhai came to the front counter hearing the ruckus. He was in the back of the shop along with their granddaughters – four-year-old Zuri, and two-year-old Emi.
“They [robbers] ran out of the shop and my husband who was in the back came out to see that I was okay. Word of what I’ve done is starting to get around the area, everyone knows what I’m like – I help out with people and charities and I care for people in the local area but don’t ever cross me,” she said.
However, the footage from the CCTV camera has helped the police catch the thieves – two teenagers, aged 16 and 14.
Patel has been running the shop since 1984 and she has never experienced an incident like this earlier.