How low do you have to be to try to rob a Meals on Wheels driver? If it had happened in Texas, he’d be lower than a snake’s belly in a wagon rut. But this particular lowlife was operating in Columbus, Ohio, so…lower than a Michigan fan dotting the ‘i’?
Two un-named yoots tried to rob a septuagenarian MoW driver — a retired cop — after he’d delivered some food to an elderly man who had just left the hospital. One of the pair of crooks forced his way into the driver’s car, then pointed a gun at him. That didn’t go well for the yoot.
From The Columbus Dispatch:
A second teen took the driver’s wallet and phone, police said. The driver, who had a concealed-carry license, loaded his gun, and the second teen yelled that he had a gun. Police said the 14-year-old pointed a gun at the driver, and the driver fired three rounds at him. The second suspect ran from the scene and had not been arrested as of Friday night.
The wounded punk was still behind the wheel when police arrived.
The teen, believed to be 14 and shot in the side, was taken to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in stable condition, said Sgt. Chris Odom.
According to Columbus police, authorities were called just after 11 a.m. to the 1200 block of East 18th Avenue, where neighbors had found the teen slumped in the seat of the delivery driver’s car.
A clear case of armed self-defense by a licensed concealed carrier. Exactly the reason so many Americans choose to own and carry a firearm. And one of hundreds of thousands (millions?) of successful, crime-stopping defensive gun uses that happen each year.
[Sgt. Chris] Odom said that it appears that the driver was justified in using force to defend himself.
“It is an affirmative defense to use force when you are in fear of being hurt or killed,” Odom said.
Manorris Stinson, who lives in the neighborhood, said the teens live nearby. And he wonders why they weren’t in school.
“My feeling is that they never should have messed with that guy,” Stinson said. “It’s wrong when his entire intention in being here is charity.”
Exactly.
“We have never had anything even remotely close to this,” [LifeCare Alliance president Chuck] Gehring said.
The driver, a 76-year-old retired police officer, was actually being paid $8.70 per hour plus mileage, necessary because there aren’t enough volunteer drivers, Gehring said. “He’s not paid enough to do what he’s doing.”
And after this little incident, he may not do it any more at all.