Robber messes with wrong shopkeeper - a former police officer armed with a bottle of vodka
Dramatic CCTV shows the moment a would-be robber messed with the wrong shopkeeper - a former special police constable who chased him off with a bottle of VODKA. Dilan Mendis, who spent 12 years serving with the Metropolitan Police, was behind the counter when two masked men entered his shop at 5pm last Friday (26/8). One of the yobs then approached the till and demanded Mr Mendis filled a rucksack with disposable e-cigarettes at Bath Wines, in Worcester. The shop owner can be heard pleading 'come on brother I work hard for my money' before reaching for his phone to start calling police. The would-be thief shouts 'put the phone down man' and tries to get behind the counter at which point Mr Mendis grabs a bottle of vodka from the shelf. The dad-of-three then sent the two men fleeing from his shop empty-handed by chasing them out of the door. Mr Mendis said the thugs probably didn't expect a former experienced officer to be behind the till when they targeted his business. He added: “I was not too scared as I have dealt with these kinds of incident whilst working for the Met Police. “I saw on CCTV that there were two men speaking outside the shop for couple of minutes, then both came in. “I asked him to remove the mask and he said he couldn’t do that, then he asked for all of the disposable vapes, so I tried to look around everywhere to buy time. “I tried to call the police and he asked me to put the phone down and I carried on, so he came around the back to behind the counter to stop me, so I asked him to wait but he still came. “I pushed my chair towards him so he couldn’t come near, then I’ve grabbed a bottle of vodka and chased him out of the shop.” Mr Mendis, who runs the shop with his wife Suzanne and children Nicholas, Rian and Tianna, shared footage of the robbery on Facebook in a bid to identify the culprits. One of the men is wearing a blue mask and glasses while the other who lingers at the back of the shop is wearing a dark jumper and trousers. He wrote: "These boys tried to rob bath wines, asking for disposable vapes but didn’t succeed. "We have informed the police. If you know these boys please let us know so I can inform the police." Meanwhile, web users mocked the crooks bungled attempts and their unfortunate choice of target. One person commented: "Talk about picking on the wrong guy, lol. Hope they get caught soon." Another added: "And the award for the worst attempted robbery of all time goes to the milky bar kid." A third person wrote "looks like he has put a pair of pants on his head" while another said: "Harry Potter and badmanz of Bath Road, innit" Another put: "Well done to the owner for standing his ground. No one should feel unsafe in their work place. Its not a joke, it's disgraceful." Mr Mendis said he used the panic button at the shop but by the time he received a call from the security company, the men had run off. He has also reported the attempted robbery to West Mercia Police.