A brave shopkeeper was injured after fighting off three thugs who were attempting to steal from his shop.
On Friday morning, three men armed with a wooden bat entered the Atherton Leigh Road based Costcutter store and threatened owner Ben Patel and two members of the public.
The thieves began taking boxes of cigarettes and shoving them into a bed sheet until a customer confronted them resulting in ‘a scuffle’. Fortunately, the gang fled from the shop empty-handed while Mr Patel was taken to hospital to treat a fractured leg which occurred during the attack.
Mr Patel went on to tell the Manchester Evening News about the incident, he said “There was me, a customer and the milkman in the shop. We were just chatting and then this lad walked in.
“I thought it was a joke at first. I thought it was someone being silly, then he threatened one of the customers and I thought ‘this is real’.
“I told them to get down. The lad came round my till and told me to get in the corner and shoved me.
“I didn’t know what was going on.
“He started emptying the cigarettes. They brought a bed sheet and were throwing everything in there and trying to get into the till.
“There was nothing in it, so they just carried on taking what they could.
“We were just obeying what they said. I did not want anyone getting hurt.”
