All this reminded me of a funny incident in which an employee dealt with a couple of violent thieves.
When I first started working there was a convenience store that we liked to hang out at because they were "police friendly", which meant free sodas and cigarettes in payment for hanging out occasionally. A Korean family took over management and the night shift guy, who was pretty meek and mild mannered, was uber police friendly. He was a cousin of the owner and had just come to the US, so his English, and demeanor, were different. One thing we noticed right away was his generosity. You had to practically fight off the free goodies he gave away, always saying "You stay. Stay and drink soda, read magazines, stay for long time."
Once, when I wanted to buy one of the little 99 cent bags of popped-in-store popcorn, he insisted on popping a new batch and filling up a full sized grocery bag for us. We drove around for three nights eating popcorn before we got tired of it. Try to buy a pack of smokes and he would push a carton on you.
He got to the point where he would lock the doors if no cops were around. After 1 A.M. the place was either a mini-substation or locked up and the lights dimmed. No police, no business was the guy's motto.
It was a little strange, but we chalked it up to the fact that it wasn't the greatest neighborhood the guy was a bit of a wus who was afraid of some of the local nightlife.
One night I noticed a stack of fliers for a Taekwondo school opening nearby. As I was reading the flier the night shift guy said I could get a discount. Intrigued, I asked him if he knew the people that owned the business. "I own" was his reply. He could see I was a little skeptical, so he took me over to the magazine rack and grabbed the latest edition of a martial arts magazine, and there he was. Turned out that he was some kind of Taekwondo legend, even had been on the Johnny Carson show a couple of times and had the pictures to prove it.
Still, I was skeptical until there was an incident one night at the store when no cops were hanging out. Another officer showed up and found the doors locked (which wasn't unusual), but he saw blood on the floor and the interior of the place looked like some rhinos had a drunken brawl in there. Blood splatters led away from the front door to the street. The officer started calling for backup and began beating on the door to see if anybody would respond. Our friend showed up holding a mop he had been using to clean up the blood.
It wasn't his blood.
It was one of the few occasions in which he was actually open for business without the police hanging out. Two of the locals had wandered in to make an early morning beer run - well past legal sales time. When the clerk objected to the purchase, they scoffed. When he insisted, they said "and we ain't even going to pay, and if you try and stop us we gonna mess you up!" Our mild mannered friend then told them to just leave without hurting him, and they took that as a cue to go further. As they came across the counter to open the register, he had the phone receiver up to his ear (one of those old heavy telephones) to call the cops. When one of the beer thieves cum robbers decided he would "kick some chinaman ass", the clerk used the phone on him. It was smashed to pieces when he was done. When the other dude came to his buddy's defense, the clerk used some of that serious Korean whupass on both of them.
There wasn't a mark on the man.
We found one of the guys right away. The one who had the telephone conversation was wandering down the street and another unit almost ran him over. Both eyes were swollen shut and he was in the middle of the road with his arms out trying to feel his way to someplace where there weren't any Koreans. His head had more lumps on it than you'll find in a sack of potatoes.
It took the better part of an hour to get him to stop blubbering enough to understand what he was saying.
The other dude showed up later at the county hospital. The list of broken bones was impressive.
It was like something out of the old Kung Fu television show. They had a philosophy on how to always win a fight - don't be there when one breaks out.
YouTube - The Tao of Kung Fu #4 - "Peace is prized above victory."