Army veteran Joe Morici worked at a CVS in Beltsville, Maryland. When the two men hopped the pharmacy counter and stole drugs from “his” store, Mr. Morici “quickly told cashiers to call 911 and helped an elderly man out of the store before locking the doors, preventing the suspects from leaving. Then he confronted them. ‘The two kids ran into the door, which was closed now, and Joe got one of them and had him,’ Chick Hernandez, a customer in the store at the time, told FOX5. “The kid, he had said to his partner, ‘Shoot him.’…And then Joe said, ‘I’ve been in the military far too long. You don’t have anything.’” As it turned out . . .
Mr. Morici was correct: neither suspect had a gun (one of the perps held a screwdriver). Yes but — his statement was a bluff. “I don’t really know that they didn’t really have one. I just kind of assumed.” Mr. Morici grabbed the screwdriver, but eventually the men got away.
CVS fired the vet for confronting the thieves. Thanks to the resulting publicity, Mr. Morici has received plenty of job offers, several law enforcement related. The question is, were his heroics a smart move or dangerous theatrics, especially as they proved unsuccessful? Equally, what if he’d been armed (as many pharmacists are)? What the bad guys had been armed? What if both Mr. Morici and the bad guys had been armed? Game this one for me . . . [h/t Pascal]