'Thank God for Conceal Carry,' Manager Says After Employee Shoots Would-Be Robbers

A sales clerk with a conceal-carry license shot two armed robbers during a holdup at a cell phone store in the Calumet Heights neighborhood on the Far South Side.

The manager of the T-Mobile store in the 2000 block of East 95th Street told ABC 7 Chicago that two men entered the business around 11 a.m. Wednesday and acted as if they were shopping for phones. After a few minutes, the men approached employees with guns drawn. As one employee ran into the back of the store to call for help, the other employee took out a gun and fired at both suspects.

One was struck in the groin and arm, the other in the abdomen and arm, the Chicago Tribune reported.

“Thank God for conceal-carry,” store manager Neil Tadros told the Chicago Tribune.

Both men, ages 24 and 35, are in serious condition at Stroger Hospital where they were later arrested, the newspaper said. Charges fare pending, police said.

“I think concealed carry is a great opportunity for managers, workers, employees to protect themselves in these cases,” store manager Tadros told ABC 7. “And our employee did a great job to protect themselves and the other employee.”

This is the second time this week that would-be robbers have been shot by storekeepers. Last Saturday, two teens, ages 15 and 17, were shot during an attempted robbery of Z&S Food and Liquor, 1351 W. 87th St., in Chicago’s Gresham neighborhood.

According to news reports, the teens were said to have walked into the store when one of them jumped the counter. The teen hit the clerk. A relative who heard the commotion came downstairs and shot both suspects dead from a stairwell, police said.

Later, a photo of the two dead teens was posted on social media, showing both lying in pools of blood. A gun lay near some pork rinds and bottled water. [Patch received this photo via email.]

The Chicago Tribune said the same liquor store was the scene of a similar incident in 2011, where a suspect was shot dead and a store clerk wounded in a struggle for a gun with another robbery suspect.