The one thing most people probably don't think about when going into a GameStop is having to fend for their lives against armed robbers, almost taken right out of some of the action games they play. Well, that's exactly what happened with one seven-year-old who was attending a GameStop with his family.
As you can see in the video above, posted on YouTube by mcpdmedia, the child is walking around in the GameStop when two masked, armed robbers waltz through the front door. The child is then grabbed by one of the robbers, but takes a stuffed Yoshi doll and proceeds to beat and punch on the armed robber while being dragged over to his parents. The boy and his parents were there shopping for a Yoshi doll from Nintendo's popular Super Mario series.
According to Geek.com, the robbery took place on Friday, May 20th. The article further explains that after the two men entered into the store, they ordered everyone to get down on the floor. One of them then proceeded to ask the seven-year-old boy to move over near the register and get on the floor alongside his parents; the boy refused.
The robber then decided to reach out and grab the boy, at which point the boy began fighting back, all the way to the register where the robber had him lay down where the clerks and his parents were.
The robbery took place at a GameStop store in Silver Spring, Maryland. After the robbers had everyone get down and face the wall behind the counter, they proceeded to steal some personal belongings and all the cash out of the register.
The two perpetrators managed to escape the scene, and are still at large as of the publishing of this article.
The parents of the boy who fought back against the robber note that their son was likely just reacting instinctively. According to WJLA News, the father of the seven-year-old explained to them...
He's a brave little boy, and he recognized he was in a dangerous situation, [...] And there was a stranger and he was trying to defend himself.
Most times when the “fight or flight” instinct kicks in, it results in standing absolutely still, frightened beyond belief, and possibly wetting one's pants. Other times people flee in terror. It's rarely ever a response to fight back, unless clear-headed (or reckless) intentions are outlined in the mind of a potential victim. In this case, the kid wasn't going to go down without a fight, so he gave the perpetrators all he could before being forced to the ground.
Strangely enough, the robbers did not take any of the actual video games in the store. One of the officers mentioned to WJLA that video games can be expensive so there's a lot of cash traded around in GameStop stores, but it kind of seems odd that the thieves didn't at least grab a PlayStation 4 or two for trading purposes. In fact, they left the Xbox One, Wii U, and other expensive gaming gear completely alone. They must not have had much of an interest in the actual games.
As for the seven-year-old, he'll go down in history as a kid who fought off robbers while trying to protect video games.
