A man’s quick thinking and courageous actions helped thwart a daylight robbery in Manhattan, New York on Wednesday, 29 January. Footage was captured by a passerby who witnessed the incident as it was unfolding, which has since been shared to social media platforms like TikTok and Reddit for the whole world to see.
The one-minute snippet of footage opens on a busy sidewalk in lower east side Manhattan, and sees a man dressed in a baggy black t-shirt, dark blue jeans, and white sneakers smoking a cigarette nearby a pedestrian crossing. It’s worth noting that he also sports three hospital bands on his left wrist.
The man lingers by the side of the road for a few moments before targeting a blonde woman walking towards him in sunglasses and a long black coat. It’s difficult to discern what he’s saying to her as the sound of the traffic is quite loud, though he is yelling at her, and you can hear him shout “B****!” a few times.
As he’s harassing her, he lunges forward and attempts to grab the phone from out of her hand. Almost instinctively, the female victim turns quickly and runs across the road, away from the perpetrator, though he does proceed to follow her. “Yo, b****! Give me my phone back.” exclaims the aggressor as he follows her.
Fortunately, it’s at this point where our resident hero steps into the frame and stands between the perpetrator and the victim. The woman runs behind a black, parked vehicle and the courageous man stands in his way blocking him from getting near her. “I was just trying to get my phone back, bro. I was just trying to get my phone back.” expresses the would-be robber. Meanwhile, as he’s talking, our hero begins taking off his black puffer jacket to show that he means business.
Thankfully, the perpetrator senses that the juice may not be worth the squeeze and begins to back away, saying: “You good, bro. You good. You good, bro.” The brave man fires back, “What’s up? What’s up? You think you’re a tough guy?” Next, the would-be thief begins claiming that the woman stole his phone, saying: “She stole my phone and left, bro! I had like three phones, bro.” Meanwhile, the cameraman who is recording the footage chimes in, declaring: “That s*** ain’t your phone, n*****.” before the aggressor begins walking away down a different street.
With the clip making the rounds on social media, netizens weighed in with their gut reactions to the footage, with one Redditor declaring:
The three hospital bands and meandering around a drug store are dead giveaways
GreyBoyTigger
Elsewhere, a second commenter wrote: “poor guys confusing his hospital bands with phones“
Another commenter over on TikTok championed the heroic passer-by who helped the woman in distress, expressing: “I love this😁 he took his coat off immediately 😂“
It remains unclear whether the police were called to the scene, though I’m happy to report that no one was injured during the heated incident. Still, a big thanks goes out to the unity and support of the local community who helped this young lady in her time of distress.
