Viral Video Shows Jewelry Store Employees Fight off Robbers With Swords

Viral surveillance footage from an Ontario, Canada jewellery store shows the owners using swords [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

Viral surveillance footage from an Ontario, Canada jewellery store shows the owners using swords to fend off robbers on Wednesday.

The footage comes from Ashok Jewelers in Mississauga, a city bordering Toronto. Four robbers are seen trying to crawl into the store after one breaks a window. After making it into the store, the robbers are surprised to see the owner, his son and his brother come rushing at them, swinging swords.

The owner told CTV News that grabbing the swords was a "spur of the moment" decision. "We have to defend ourselves," he added.

"Four males with their faces covered attempted to gain access to the store by breaking a window," Const. Akhil Mooken told the Toronto Sun. "But they were met by staff members inside who were armed with swords and managed to fend them off."

The video shows one of the robbers flee, before three others try to come in. After seeing the sword-wielding owners, they all jumped out to a nearby Dodge Durango and fled the scene.

According to CTV, video from another angle shows one of the robbers tried to use his gun during the robbery, but it apparently failed to fire.

Police are now investigating the incident.

This was the first time Ashok Jewelers was robbed, but it was not the first time a robbery was thwarted by a sword-wielding owner in the city of Mississauga. Back in July, video showed New Rana Jewelers owner Baldev Manjania use a sword to fend off robbers who made stole $100,000-worth of items from his store.

"I feel very scared. I thought they were going to shoot my wife," Manjania told the Canadian Press at the time. "I went to get my sword because I had to do something to save my family."

While swords stopped the robbery at Ashok Jewelers, Const. Danny Marttini told CTV that police do not condone violence. She added that if the owner had used force deemed excessive he could have faced charges.

"We're definitely not pro-violence in regards to this particular circumstance," Marttini said. "But at the same time we are fortunate that there were no injuries and everyone is still OK."

"At the end of the day, it's just property and these items can be replaced by your insurance," Mooken told the Sun.

By Thursday, everything was back to normal at Ashok Jewelers, aside from the broken window. The owners also put their swords safety in storage.

Photo credit: Twitter/bigTO

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