Three employees of a jewelry store in Mississauga, Canada saved their shop from being robbed by wielding their saber-style swords at masked robbers. The incident happened in broad daylight at Ashok Jewellers, which is owned by a person of Indian origin.
According to a CBC report, four masked people tried to enter the store by hammering the glass of the store, while an employee of the store was standing few meters away from that glass with a customer.
A video of this robbery attempt and employees’ retaliation to force the robbers fled, was widely shared on social media. In the video, one of the four would be robbers is seen entering the shop forcefully by hammering the glass. A second masked person is seen helping him.
An employee, who is seen in the video standing in the store, ran to grab his sword and came with two more people brandishing their swords to fight robbers. One robber, who somehow succeeded to enter, jumped back outside immediately after facing the retaliation from the employees.
All four robbers were seen fleeing from the scene after employees’ self-defensive bravery.
Kamil Karamali, reporter for Global News Toronto shared this video on his Twitter handle and said that shop owners told him that those were Kirpans, which they used to save their shops. Kirpan is a religious blade carried by Sikhs.
For those asking ‘what were jewelry shop owners doing with swords,’ they tell me they were Kirpans.
A religious blade carried by Sikhs.
They also told me they have more than just 3 in the back of the store. pic.twitter.com/vFUX6fjVj6
— Kamil Karamali (@KamilKaramali) November 23, 2018
CBC quoted the store owner’s son as saying, “When we saw them coming in, that’s when we really took action and we rushed them.”
He told the publication that one of the robbers had a gun and he tried to fire but the weapon got jammed.
The employees told that the swords were given as a gift by a friend of the owner’s family.
In another CCTV video, four of the masked persons were seen running back to their black SUV to flee from the site. The incident is under investigation.
It is not the first incident of such kind in Canada. In July this year, another jewelry store owner also reportedly fought off such robbers with swords. That store is at located just a few meters away from Ashok Jewellers.