‘Courteous gunman’ robs Breakneck Market cashier, gets tackled by cashier’s husband
Kelly Tunney | Herald-Standard
Surveillance footage from Breakneck Market in Bullskin Township shows David Stoots, left, grappling with a robber (in white) in front of his wife, cashier Lacey Stoots, while employee Joseph Adobato, lower right, was armed but held his fire, unable to find an opening.
Kelly Tunney | Herald-Standard
Lacey Stoots of Connellsville was held up Sunday evening at her job at Breakneck Market in Bullskin Township, but she returned to work the register Monday morning.
Kelly Tunney | Herald-Standard
Rick Adobato, the owner of Breakneck Market, recounts investigating who robbed his store on Sunday evening.
A man who robbed Breakneck Market reportedly turned down more than half the contents of a cash register and apologized before he was tackled by the cashier’s husband Sunday evening.
“Just like any red-blooded American, that’s my wife in there. I vowed to protect her and I did so,” said David Stoots of Connellsville, the cashier’s husband.
Police are continuing to look for the man, who escaped on foot after pulling a gun on Stoots of Connellsville, when he stepped in to protect his wife.
Rick Adobato, who owns the Bullskin Township shop, dubbed the suspect “The Courteous Gunman” for his robbery tactics.
“He didn’t take all the cash out of the register,” Adobato said. “He said he didn’t want to be greedy.”
Cashier Lacey Stoots said her husband brought their two children in for a visit Sunday evening. As he was loading their 4-year-old son and 5-month-old daughter in the vehicle, the robber entered the store in a mask at about 5:10 p.m.
“He said that he had a problem and he needed to go to rehab,” Stoots said. She said when she began unloading the cash register, he told her to stop. “He said he just needed a couple dollars to get his fix for the day.”
She described the robbery as an “out-of-body experience,” saying that at the time, she thought of the incident as a customer confiding a problem to her.
“I tried to keep him from being riled up,” she said.
Meanwhile, her husband saw a man in a mask in his peripheral vision from the parking lot. Surveillance footage shows the suspect walking toward the door and Stoots tackling the man.
“At that point, my objective was just to get him down, subdue him until police got there,” he said.
They wrestled for about 30 seconds until the suspect pointed a gun at the man.
“When the gun comes out, you’ve only got seconds to think, but at that point it was just safe to get him out the store,” he said.
He said he held the suspect’s wrist so that he could not point the gun at anyone and took him to the exit door.
Stoots said the man ran down Breakneck Road.
Lacey Stoots said many regular customers came into the store to check on her Monday. She said she is largely unshaken, but her 4-year-old son seems to be suffering from trauma.
She said the boy was up until 3 a.m. and only slept about three hours Sunday night. He is having trouble eating. She said he has been continuously reacting to noises, thinking it might be “the bad guy” coming back.
State police Trooper Stefani Lucas said police are continuing their investigation. No arrests were made Monday afternoon.
David Stoots said people have been calling him a hero on social media, but he doesn’t see it that way. He served as a firefighter with Bullskin and Connellsville townships and said he was simply reacting as he was trained and protecting his family.
“People classify me as a hero. I’m not a hero. I’m a hero in my kids’ eyes, and that’s who I want to look at me as a hero every day of my life,” he said.
“My wife is the love of my life,” he said with a chuckle. “You do crazy things.”