Would-be Robber Picks Wrong Elderly Man, Gets Pummeled

By Anastacia Mott Austin

Bill Barnes, 72, a retired ironworker, was in a convenience store in Comstock, Michigan, last week to buy a $2 scratch-off ticket. As he stood in the store scratching his ticket, he felt a hand slip into his pocket – which contained $300 he had just withdrawn from the bank.

When he felt the hand in his pocket, he instinctively grabbed the thief’s wrist with his left hand, and punched him repeatedly with his right. Unbeknownst to the would-be pickpocket, Barnes is an ex-marine as well as a former Golden Glove boxer.

"I knew he was going for my money, so I just turned around and started hitting him," said Barnes to the The Grand Rapids Press in an interview Tuesday. "I guess he thought I was an easy mark."

Guess he thought wrong. Barnes was a runner-up in various Golden Glove boxing competitions before enlisting in the Marines in 1956. The reflexes learned in both arenas served him well. "I acted on instinct," said Barnes to reporters.

When the manager of the convenience store, Bill Dutcher, saw Barnes scuffling with the thief, he ran around the counter to help. The three men struggled for a moment before Barnes and Dutcher pushed the man to the ground and called police.

The accused thief, Jesse Daniel Rae, apparently ended up much the worse for wear. "There was blood everywhere," another manager at the store told reporters.

Rae, 27, was taken into custody in lieu of $15,000 bail and arraigned Monday on one count of unarmed robbery, a felony that could earn him up to 15 years in prison.

The scratch-off ticket Barnes bought turned out to be a dud. But he feels he came out ahead when he fended off the would-be robber and ended up without a scratch himself.

Barnes told reporters he was more afraid of what his wife would have said if he’d arrived home without the cash. "I wouldn’t want my wife to give me hell for lettin’ that guy get my money."