Police in Auburn, Washington say two teenage boys and a grown man watched a store clerk collapse of a heart attack and — instead of calling for help — took advantage of his heart attack to steal from him. You can watch the surveillance video of the entire, tragic event here.
The man and boys walked into a Shell gas station in Auburn at about 6PM on Saturday. The clerk wasn’t behind the counter when they walked in, and the customers were acting unruly from the beginning, police say; the boys helped themselves to a couple of pepperoni sticks from the counter and ate them without offering to pay. The clerk returned and asked the boys to pay, at which point one boy handed him a dollar bill.
That’s when things got ugly.
The clerk came out from behind the counter and started to argue about the price of the pepperoni sticks. The video is silent, but you can see them all gesturing angrily. Then suddenly — mid argument — fell forward onto a display of smart water.
But these customers didn’t call 911, or try to administer CPR. Instead, one of the teens bent down and snatched the dollar bill back from the unconscious clerk. Then they all ran away — only to return a few seconds later and steal some merchandise. The teens then came back again — passing right by the clerk’s body — and ransacked the store’s cash register, making off with $178 in cash, according to the store’s owner, Angela Sharapova. The adult man doesn’t appear on the video again.
Sharapova said that the clerk is in the hospital now, and she hopes he will make a good recovery.
About three minutes after the teens left the store for the last time, another customer came in. Finding the clerk on the floor, he tried to do CPR, and he called 911. Police say the clerk, a father of three, is in critical condition, and it is too early to tell whether he will survive.