Smithfield man turns tables on robber
GEORGES Twp. – “You never know what you are going to do in a situation like that until it happens. I probably did the stupid thing, but it worked.” Gary Bittinger, 49, of Smithfield used those words to describe his altercation with a knife-wielding masked man at a bar in Georges Township Wednesday night.
State police Trooper Timothy Kirsch said the masked assailant attempted to rob Beech’s Tavern on Rubles Mill Road shortly after 10 p.m., but encountered Bittinger who thwarted the holdup.
Bittinger said he was sitting at the corner stool at the bar when the suspect entered the tavern and held a knife to Bittinger’s throat and demanded money.
“I usually sit in my favorite seat where I can see the door, but this time I had my back to the door and look what happened,” Bittinger said Thursday afternoon as he sipped a bottle of beer and reflected on the incident.
“He held the blade right across my neck. It was about 10 or 12 inches long and I wasn’t sure what to do.”
Kirsch said that when the bartender put money from the register on the bar and the suspect reached for it, Bittinger knocked the knife from the suspect’s hand and struck him with his left hand.
“I knocked it back over his head and the blade shattered,” Bittinger said, his graying mustache curving with his smile. “I don’t know how it shattered, but it did, and then I started to go after him. I got him pretty good, too, after that, right in the knee.”
Kirsch said Bittinger then kicked the suspect into the front door of the establishment and the suspect called Bittinger by name before fleeing the bar on foot.
“I don’t know who it was, but he knew me,” Bittinger said. “I couldn’t see his face because of the mask. But I know I got him pretty good. He was limping when he ran out.”
Kirsch said the suspect was described as a white man between 6 feet and 6 feet 2 inches tall, with a thin build.
He was wearing blue jeans and a dark hooded sweatshirt and had what appeared to be a white surgical mask covering his face, Kirsch said.
Anyone with information regarding the identity of the suspect or his whereabouts is asked to call police at 724-439-7111.