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Restaurant Workers Fight Off Knife-Wielding Robber With Soup Ladle

A guy maybe not cut out for robbery tried holding up a Brooklyn Chinese restaurant with a big knife, but fled in terror when the staff started calmly arming themselves with ladles and other kitchen utensils. His approach seemed promising — video shows him brazenly leaping onto the counter at Chen’s Garden in Canarsie, then jabbing an about-six-inch blade at workers.

But the effect, the Daily News reports, was just to convince them “to fight back:”

NYPD says the suspect is also wanted in connection with three other Canarsie robberies. Earlier that day, January 4, police believe he stole about $500 from a nearby Baskin-Robbins. On December 29, he and his knife allegedly visited a combination KFC-Taco Bell one block over, and took almost $900 from that register. Two weeks before that, he’s suspected of stealing about $300 from a Dunkin’ Donuts.

It’s unlikely any of this would have fazed the Chen’s Garden crew. Owner Yan Lin says she “wasn’t scared,” probably “because I own the restaurant and I didn’t want him to take the money.” And she’s pretty convincing: “We don’t only have knives, but we have hot oil,” she tells the Daily News. “If I had thought about it, I would have poured the oil on him.”

Restaurant Workers Thwart Knife-Wielding Robber With Ladle