A small business owner prevented an elderly couple using mobility scooters from being robbed in California.
Tony Truong was on his way to work at his car detailing shop, when he saw an elderly couple stopped on the sidewalk of a busy street in San Gabriel, California.
His attention was drawn to the couple in motorized wheelchairs because his mother had died earlier this year, and the woman bore a resemblance to her.
That’s when Truong realized the couple, who were headed home from the grocery store, were stopped because the woman’s husband was being preyed upon by a heavy set man.
“it just so happened that the more I was looking at her, I saw her husband in the back getting robbed,” he told KTLA.
“He pulled over, got out of the car and then ran up to the old man and tried to snatch his gold chain,” Truong detailed.
“That’s where I saw what happened and I hopped out of the car.”
In the video, which was captured by his dash camera, the thief, who was dressed in all white, struggled to yank a necklace off the elderly man’s neck.
Truong pulled over and hopped out of his car. He immediately yelled “what the f**k are you doing” at the man, and asked the couple if they were “okay.”
His interference stopped the thief in his tracks, who immediately backed off and tried to act as if he was aiding them.
“I asked him, ‘What are you doing?’ and said ‘That’s not okay,’” he said to the local news outlet.
“They can barely even walk. I wasn’t even thinking about my own safety at the moment,” he told ABC7 in an interview.
“My thought was to help the poor man and be sure him and his wife get home safe to their grandchildren.”
The almost robber held out cash at Truong as a prop to cover his crime, but the ploy was completely transparent to their savior.
“He told me he was trying to give the man some money and I’m like, ‘No, that’s not what I saw. I saw exactly what you did.’”
Troung said the man scampered off to a white Nissan Armada SUV where a female passenger and children had been watching his disgusting attempt at stealing from the elderly.
“He was scum because he was targeting older people that can’t defend themselves,” Truong said about the man.
The car detailer managed to record clear images of the man’s face, vehicle, and Nevada license plates before he fled the scene.
He doesn’t think his actions were noteworthy, but hopes that people in his community will “be alert” for similar situations and “do something about it,” rather than turning allowing fellow residents to be taken advantage of.
“I don’t consider myself a hero, I was just doing what anybody would do,” Truong stated. “I’m just tired of seeing this happening online and nobody steps in.”
