Video Shows Hero Grandmother Tackling Hammer-Wielding Thief in Store Raid. She Sits on Him Until Police Arrive.
“I just can’t believe I did it,” she says.
A brave grandmother helped foil an armed robbery attempt on a family newsagents in Glasgow, Scotland, when a man wearing a balaclava threatened her nephew with a claw hammer. Roseann Gibson, 63, was working in the newsagent with nephew Christopher Brown, 26, when the incident happened. Not only did the 4ft 11 grandma help subdue the suspect, but Gibson also unmasked the man to discover he was a previous customer at the store. Here's what she says happened.
The entire incident was caught on CCTV, something Gibson finds hard to watch. "When I watched the CCTV back, I was shocked. I just can't believe I did it. A lot of things have changed since it happened," she tells the Daily Record. "Before, I would never have thought twice about standing outside the shop early in the morning while we wait to open up, which I've done for 42 years. But now I wait in my car across the road. I'm annoyed that I feel that way but I'm scared and angry. You always get dafties but this is the first time something as bad as this has happened. There is a panic button right behind where Christopher was standing but his instincts took over. He said he just saw the hammer and thought about me while I was thinking about him." Keep reading to learn more and see the video.
Gibson says the day started out like any other. "Christopher and myself opened up the shop that morning and it was about 7.50 am. He had set up the papers and a lady came in. She had a bag full of presents for my grandson. I saw her and came from behind the counter to speak to her because I'd been tidying the magazines. I was aware of somebody else coming in but thought it was just a normal customer. But the next minute, I saw the newspapers getting thrown over. That's when I looked and saw the guy had a hammer."
"By that time, Christopher had thrown the papers over and diverted him. He was coming with the hammer," Gibson says. "I managed to get the guy down using the side of my body but by that time, Christopher had flown over the counter to throw a plastic perspex screen. He got him down and we sat on him. I must admit, although I say we sat on him, it was pretty hard because he was trying to get up while we were trying to keep him down."
Gibson managed to unmask the mystery assailant while she was helping pin him down. "I got the balaclava off of him because I wanted to see his face to see if I knew him. I did recognise him – not as a good customer but someone who had been in the shop before. We just held him down. He obviously let go of the hammer and Mrs Callaghan lifted it which you can see in the video."
The would-be robber turned out to be George Kinnear, 45. He appeared at Glasgow Crown Court and admitted to threatening violence and brandishing a weapon, and attempted robbery. "I never normally had my phone on me in the shop but I did that morning because I had been pricing something. Lucky enough, I managed to hold him down with me on top of Christopher and phoned the police," Gibson says. "They were really quick in coming. The police came back in and told us he had a knife when they searched him. I still can't believe that this happened."
