An instinctive gesture, which could have been costly if the criminal had decided to open fire on her, yet tobacconist Alessandra Zedda didn’t hesitate for a single moment: the moment she saw a gun pointed at her, she faced the thief in a short but intense melee and put him to flight. The images taken by the surveillance cameras installed inside the business are currently making the rounds on the web, triggering contrasting reactions between those who celebrate the act of the 38-year-old originally from Terralba and those who believe that she should have acted differently to avoid put his life at risk.
The events occurred late in the evening of last Sunday 5 May. It was just after 10pm, when a man armed with a gun entered inside Pietro Paolo Manis’ tobacco shop in Corso Trinità in Sassari, his face covered by what looked like a balaclava. The robber throws a bag towards the cash register and orders the woman to fill it with the money from a reasonably profitable day. To convince the tobacconist to follow his orders, he takes out one pistol and points it at her: from the images, obviously, it is impossible to understand whether it is a real weapon or a replica.
Certain of escaping with the loot within a few minutes, the man nevertheless has to deal with the reaction of the 38-year-old, who has no intention of giving up the money. Alessandra Ledda throws a heavy hit metallic object against him, goes around the counter and reaches him to face him directly. The woman hits the criminal several times who, taken by surprise, is forced to change his plans and leave the tobacco shop to flee before the police arrive on site.
And so it actually happens: the tobacconist first contacts the police to report the attempted robbery and then her manager. Analyzing what happened with a cool head, however, she is keen to give advice to anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation. “I’ve been doing this job for many years, I tell young people who are starting out that in similar situations they shouldn’t do anything risky”explains the 38-year-old in Casteddu On Line, “The exact opposite of what I did, I know, but that’s because when I feel attacked I react“.
His, he admits, was an instinctive reaction, without knowing whether the gun was real or not. “I was under threat, I didn’t think about the money from the collection or anything else. At that point my reaction was to defend myself and above all my first thought was to disarm him”, he further specifies. My thoughts go to his 13 year old son: “I think about him all the time. But you never know how you’ll react if you’re not in certain situations. Giving the money would have been less risky”admits the tobacconist,“I also tell the interns to stay quiet”. Luckily everything went well and now the investigators are looking for the person responsible.
“We want more controls and more security, it’s crazy that we shopkeepers are forced to take justice into our own hands”the 38-year-old asks in conclusion.
