An employee at a New Hampshire butcher shop was no match for a would-robber on Monday when the man tried to steal the store's holiday products.
Fox Country Smokehouse employee Bill Annis said Monday was the third time someone has broken into the Canterbury shop. When the masked man broke in with a crow bar and started to steal the fresh cut meat, Annis said he was determined to catch the robber himself.
“It was so fast, it’s unbelievable when you look at video, it’s crazy,” Annis said Friday.
Surveillance cameras captured the suspect square up and throw a punch, but even then, Annis didn’t back down.
“I just wanted his ski mask off that’s all I wanted,” Annis said.
Because this has happened two times before, Annis believes it’s the same guy.
“Very frustrating, it’s a very small business and we are trying to make ends meet and trying to make everyone happy for the holidays,” Annis said.
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Jacob Fox’s family opened the butcher shop nearly a half a century ago. In the surveillance video, he can be seen bursting through the doors seconds after Annis.
“I thought it’d be best to just get him out, so I was trying to Bill off of him,” Fox recalled.
But Annis, so determined to catch the robber himself, refused to let go of his shirt, ripping it right off his back as the man escapes into the woods.
Customer Sue Porter couldn’t believe her eyes when she watched the surveillance video.
“They can’t just walk in here and think they can get away with stuff, somebody is going to put up a fight, there’s going to be a stink,” Porter said. “I’m glad they did that.”
Porter said she's also glad no one was seriously hurt. But no one is more relieved than Annis’s daughter who can be seen in the video giving him a hug as he shuts the door, still clenching the suspect’s shirt.
When necn asked why he risked his life for this business, he said, “It’s everything to me, this is it.”
The employees are working overtime trying to fill all the holiday orders that backed up because of the ordeal. But they say they’ll get it done in time for Christmas.
The shop is offering a $500 reward for any information that leads to an arrest.
Police are still investigating.
