Shopkeeper fights off knifeman with granny's walking stick

May 12 2009 by Sam Casey, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A KNIFE-wielding robber was no match for a shopkeeper – armed with his mum’s walking stick.

Newsagent Dinesh Joshi refused the masked assailant’s demands for cash, then picked up the staff from behind his counter and forced the cowardly robber to beat an embarrassing retreat.

It was the latest in a long string of incidents at his shop – and the second time he has used a walking stick to fight back.

Mr Joshi, 51, said: “There was no way I was going to hand over any money – I have a business to protect.”

The man walked into Joshi newsagents on Swan Lane in Lockwood at about 4.40pm on Saturday afternoon.

He pulled out a four-inch blade, leaned over the counter and started waving it at Mr Joshi and his mother, 75-year-old Maniben Joshi, who was also sitting there.

He shouted: “Give me money, give me money.”

Mr Joshi said: “It was a bit scary, but I’ve dealt with this sort of person before. I picked up the walking stick and swung it at him but he ran out of the shop.

“If someone walks up to you like that and you haven’t got any arms yourself, what else can you do?

“I just picked up the first thing that came to hand.”

He said his mother was shaken up by the incident, but was otherwise all right.

He said there were two other customers in the shop at the time, but they just watched the events unfold then asked him what had happened.

Mr Joshi’s shop has been targeted nine times in the last eight years. The catalogue of serious incidents includes: