Burglars Pull Knife On OKC Employee Who Chases After Them

An Oklahoma City pawn shop employee tried to stop a burglary and the thieves pulled a knife on him.

Wednesday, March 26th 2014, 10:31 pm

By: News 9


An Oklahoma City pawn shop employee tried to stop a burglary and the thieves pulled a knife on him.

It happened at Express Cash Pawn in the 5500 block of south Pennsylvania Ave. on the morning of March 19, 2014.

Security footage showed one of the thieves make a mad dash from the store's garage with a stolen weed eater and an employee darting after him to get it back.

"I look over and I see the guy running across the side of the building, so I run after him," said employee James Bailey.

Bailey was a track star in his younger years, but said he was not prepared for that 200-yard dash.

"I pushed him from behind, which made him drop the weed eater. Well, when he stood back up, I was trying to get the weed eater and he pulled out a knife on me," said Bailey.

According to the police report, the guy threatened Bailey and waved the knife at him.

"When he was trying to say, you know, ‘I'm going to cut you with this knife,' and he'd take one step forward and two steps back, I knew he was just as scared of me as I was of him," Bailey said.

Bailey decided to run back inside and call police.

"It wasn't worth going to the hospital or getting stabbed over a $60 weed eater," Bailey explained.

The thieves passed up all the weed eaters that cost between $200 to $250 and ended up grabbing one of the cheapest weed eaters on the wall. That makes the store owner chuckle.

"I think he was overwhelmed at everything he couldn't take because there are motorcycles, big stuff, air conditioners, bicycles and so he grabbed the smallest thing back there – weed eaters," said owner Mitch Plumlee.

The car used in the crime is described as a light-colored 4-door sedan, possibly a Kia Optima. Bailey got the tag number of the car, but Plumlee said it must have been a stolen tag because it did not match up with the vehicle when police ran it.

Call crime stoppers at (405) 235-7300 if you can help catch the criminals.

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