The attempted robbery happened across the street from the Stockton Police Department headquarters building.
DATELINE: STOCKTON, Calif. —While waiting in line to buy a drink, Louis Benton noticed a masked man walk into the store, grab a trash can and head for the area behind the cash registers. With his phone already in hand, Benton started recording.
In the video, now viewed millions of times, the man rummages through shelves of tobacco products, tossing items into the trash can before being grabbed by a 7-Eleven employee and taken to the ground.
Once on the ground, a second store employee grabs a wooden pole and begins hitting the suspected thief.
At first he saw the employee retaliation as courageous, but after the suspected thief was hit nearly two dozen times, he stepped in. He grabbed the man and walked him out the front doors. “It came to a point where it got a little excessive so I was kind of like, ‘Yo, you know, we got to chill, we got to relax,'” said Benton. “Those two workers who protected their store, they did a courageous act. I believe that if I wasn’t there that guy would probably be more hurt than he was.”
Police say they were aware of the video and are investigating.
