HOLLYWOOD, FLA. (WSVN) - Cameras recorded an armed robbery outside of a bank that left a man not only robbed of his money but also stranded without his car.
Surveillance video captured the scene as a man was robbed at knifepoint, Feb. 5.
The footage taken outside a Wells Fargo bank, located along Sheridan Street and North 46th Street, revealed two crooks approaching the victim as he was about to get into his parked SUV.
The victim, who didn’t want his name mentioned, spoke with 7News on Wednesday. “One was wearing a mask, one without a mask,” he said. “He tired to stop me. I stopped him with my hands.”
Police said that’s when the thieves, one of which appeared to have a knife, demanded the $500 cash the man just withdrew and then took off with his vehicle. He tried to fight back, kicking at the robbers, but the crooks were able to jump into his SUV and take off.
“You see the first guy coming to you with the knife like this,” he said. “You have a bit of second to think and my first thinking was, ‘Just protect yourself.’ I couldn’t even give the money. I tried to push them with the hand and kick them.”
The Israeli army-trained victim said during the mugging, his instincts kicked in.
“This is me. I don’t give up,” he said. “I don’t need to give up. The magic of it is to be strong, to be happy, to be strong against anything.”
He expressed how the robbery just piled on top of his current struggle. “I have lung cancer, so it caused me shortness of breath, panic, things that are not good to my body right now,” he said. “Fight of cancer is very hard.”
Three days later, on Feb. 8, another surveillance camera caught the duo abandoning the victim’s vehicle along Hayes Street and North 24th Street. They then drove off in a gray car.
Police found the SUV in that location, and the victim has since retrieved his vehicle.
“The damage that you do to people when you come to them like this, they cannot even imagine the damage,” the victim said. “The trauma that people are having from those situations is, I cannot even describe it.”
The victim was not hurt in this armed carjacking.
If you have any information on this robbery, call Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS. Remember, you can always remain anonymous, and you may be eligible for a $3,000 reward.
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