When Northern California crooks armed with tools and wearing hoods and masks entered Dr. William To’s high-end eyeglasses store in San Ramon last month, little did they know that To’s optician takes Krav Maga self-defense classes twice a week.
Krav Maga is a “form of self-defense and physical training first developed by the Israeli Army in the 1940s, based on the use of reflexive responses to threatening situations,” according to a Krav Maga instructor for the Israeli Defense Force.
‘We were protecting each other, we were protecting our patients, and that makes me proud. That’s the decision we made in that split-second.’
Four intruders rushed into Optical Illusions: An Optometric Practice around 1 p.m. Feb. 21, KTVU-TV reported, and began attacking staff and looting as much as they could.
KTVU said the thieves were targeting luxury frames that can cost several thousand dollars each.
“Particularly they were after Cartier-brand eyewear,” To told KTVU. “They also seemed to target Gucci and Tiffany frames.”
But To and his optician weren’t having any of it, and store surveillance videos show them fighting back.
To told KRON-TV his Krav Maga-trained employee fought the other two crooks and “was probably the worst person for them to mess with.”
The optician chased them, grabbed them, delivered a kick, and then hoisted a chair to clear them from the store. The employee told KRON it all “happened really fast. The emotion more than anything … [I] was stunned, like, ‘Is this really happening?’”
To told KTVU his optician “having a defensive type of martial arts training worked out to his benefit, and he basically got in between the criminals and the patient he was working with.”
To did his share fighting, as well, telling KTVU he “tackled or tried to kind of grapple [with] one of them, then tackled another one [and] managed to pull off the hood of one of them.”
To also can be seen on surveillance video pulling a shoe off the foot of one of the crooks, and KTVU said police are analyzing the shoe for DNA.
To added to KRON that “we were protecting each other, we were protecting our patients, and that makes me proud. That’s the decision we made in that split-second.”
If the intruders only were after the eyeglasses, To said he and his optician would have let them have the merchandise, KTVU reported: “My staff, I’ve always urged them, ‘Do not engage.’ Of course, they have the right to defend themselves, which is what happened in our case.”
KTVU said the thieves made off with about a dozen eyeglasses, but a dozen others were damaged. KRON reported that the value of the stolen frames is between $3,000 to $5,000, and damages to remaining frames and the store itself ran between $10,000 and $12,000.
You can view a video report here about the incident; it includes store surveillance video clips of the employees fighting back against the robbers.
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Robbery, Self-defense, Krav maga, Eyeglasses store, Thieves, Fighting back, California, San ramon, Robbers, Optical illusions: an optometric practice, Optician, Crime
