P. T. BARNUM WAS RIGHT

Pardon me while I gather myself together. I’ve been rolling around on the floor, splitting my guts with laughter after seeing the following story on a TV news broadcast:

A Long Island convenience store owner in Garden City, N.Y. confronted by a bat-wielding robber, felt sorry for the man after he collapsed in tears claiming he was only committing the crime to support his starving family. The store owner said, "I felt bad for him. I mean, this wasn't some kid."

The store owner said he was getting ready to close his store shortly after midnight on May 21 when a man in his 40s entered with a bat in his hand. Believing that the man did not have a gun, he grabbed the rifle he kept behind the counter and ordered the robber to drop the bat.

The robber, who was wearing a hooded pullover to hide his face, dropped to his knees and begged for forgiveness. He started crying that he was out of work and was only trying to feed his hungry family. The store owner then provided the man with $40 and a loaf of bread on the condition that he promised never to rob again.

The robber tucked the $40 into his waistband, dropped the loaf of bread, picked up his bat and fled from the store.

Looks like the bat was more important to the robber than the loaf of bread. What does that say about his starving family?

P. T. Barnum was right when he supposedly coined the phrase, "There’s a sucker born every minute." The robber obviously suckered the store owner in this episode. He was left free to rob the next convenience store with the handy little bat he retrieved.

One truly has to admire the kindness of the victim in this case. What made me break out in laughter though, was the store owner’s naivete. He did not know anything about the robber’s background or whether he even had a family to worry about.

You can bet the robber in this case had a criminal history. It sort of looks like he was trying get money to feed a drug habit, not a starving family. The store owner simply fell for what was most likely a phony sob story and left the man free to rob again.