KEY POINTS:
They breed them tough in Hamilton. When a shop owner brandishing a golf club failed to stop a knife-wielding robber, an 80-year-old pensioner weighed into the scene.
Jack Norton, who lives in a motor-home, was walking along Heaphy Tce to a fruit shop about 4.15pm on Saturday when he heard screaming coming from the Tui Dairy.
He looked inside and saw a man demanding cigarettes from the female dairy owner, threatening her with a knife. The owner pulled out a golf club and told the man to leave, but he jumped behind the counter.
Mr Norton went into the shop to try to reason with the man.
"I said to him, 'You know what you're doing won't get you anywhere'. Then he started going on about how poor he was."
The robber then fled on foot after stealing several packets of cigarettes, dropping the knife on the footpath outside the shop.
Witnesses outside the shop called police and Mr Norton comforted the woman until they arrived.
Sergeant David Litton praised Mr Norton's actions and said he would be recommending him for official recognition.
"When you consider his age and the fact he was willing to go to her aid while a number of younger people walked past the store, I think he deserves some recognition. People are less likely to want to get involved these days," he said.
However, he said, shop employees should comply with the demands of robbers rather than confront them, and contact the police immediately once an offender had left.
Mr Norton shrugs off his actions.
"When I saw it I just couldn't sit back and do nothing. I just did what I could to help out."
He said he wasn't scared and the ordeal was over within a few minutes. "I will risk my life to save someone else's."
Mr Norton, whose wife died about five years ago, never thought he would be faced with such a situation.
"Never in my life has anything like that happened to me. You see it happen on TV, but not real life."
Mr Norton said he would keep in touch with the dairy owner to see how she was coping.
He reckons he's pretty fit for an 80-year-old and has just renewed his driver's licence. "I'm on medication for my heart but it's no trouble."
Blood from the incident scene will be sent for analysis, and the dairy also had a CCTV security system. The shop owner was not hurt, but badly shaken.
Last month, a robber wielding a knife was chased out of the same dairy by a staff member carrying a stick and, in 1998, an armed robber made off with $300 from the shop.
Saturday's robber was aged about 25, wearing a Waikato rugby scarf, a red and yellow rugby jersey with a red, hooded sweatshirt underneath, jeans and white shoes. He was seen running down Marshall St.
Anyone with any information should telephone Detective Brian Williamson at Hamilton police on (07) 858-6200 or leave information anonymously on 0800 Busthem (0800-287-8436).
