Man attempts to loot firm with toy gun

The employees of Manappuram Gold Finance were a shocked lot when a robber held them at gun point in Jnanaganganagar on Wednesday afternoon.

However, the amateur bank robber’s plan backfired when his victims realised he was holding a toy gun.

Manu alias Mohan (25) has been roaming in the finance company premises for the past three days. During this hiatus, he devised a conniving scheme to loot money from the company. “Raise your hands and fill money in the bag. Else I will shoot you all,” yelled Manu, pointing a gun at the shocked staff at 2.30 pm on Wednesday when they were closing on the day’s transaction. He ordered all the staff to leave except manager Sunil. The staff was shell-shocked but managed to scream for help.

Hearing the screams security guard Vishwanath who was on duty came to the rescue. While both Sunil and the guard tried to nab the robber, his gun fell on the floor and broke into pieces. No sooner had the realisation dawned on them that the gun was fake, than the robber punched them and ran out to the terrace of the building. A BSNL employee who had come to lay cable on the terrace had left the door open, giving way for Manu to enter the terrace.

Swamy, the building owner, who was on the terrace on the other end, saw Manu running on the terrace in a bid to escape and saw Sunil and Vishwanath chasing him. “I thought the BSNL employee had suffered a shock from the power lines and that this man was running to help him. When I started enquiring, Sunil and the security guard cried that he was a robber. That’s when the three of us nabbed him,” Swamy said.

“Soon people gathered  on the terrace and the robber had no chance to escape anywhere. We informed Jnanabharathi police who came immediately and arrested him,” he said.

There were eight employees when the hold-up took place.