Ex-Marine Teaches Pickpocket a Lesson

AP via SFGate ^ | 6/26/7

[SmithL]

Grand Rapids, Mich. (AP) -- Bill Barnes says he was scratching off a losing $2 lottery ticket inside a gas station when he felt a hand slip into his front-left pants pocket, where he had $300 in cash.

He immediately grabbed the person's wrist with his left hand and started throwing punches with his right, landing six or seven blows before a store manager intervened.

"I guess he thought I was an easy mark," Barnes, 72, told The Grand Rapids Press for a story Tuesday.

He's anything but an easy mark: Barnes served in the Marines, was an accomplished Golden Gloves boxer and retired after 20 years as an iron worker.

Jesse Daniel Rae, the 27-year-old Newaygo County man accused of trying to pick Barnes' pocket, was arraigned Monday in Rockford District Court on one count of unarmed robbery, a 15-year felony.

Barnes said he had just withdrawn the money from a bank machine and put it in the pocket of his shorts before driving to the Marathon service station and Next Door Food Store in Comstock park, a Grand Rapids suburb.

He remembers noticing a patron acting suspiciously, asking the price of different brands of cigarettes and other items. While turned away, Barnes felt the hand in his pocket, so he took action.

"I guess I acted on instinct," he said.

Kent County sheriff's deputies said the store manager quickly came around the counter. The three of them struggled through the front door, where two witnesses said the manager slammed Rae to the ground and held him there.

"There was blood everywhere,"...

[Oberon]

Don’t you love stories with a happy ending?

[madison10]

Dang, don’t you Marines ever stop?! No? Thank you and bless you...

[Doctor Phogg]

I love a happy ending.

[SmithL]

Instant Justice.

[andy58-in-nh]

Why I am thinking that our hero will be sued by the perp and his ACLU attorneys?

[LNewman]

No such thing as an “Ex-Marine”. I believe it should read “Retired Marine.” :)

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

He certainly wasn't acting retired.....

[Dumpster Baby]

Gotta watch out for those Amish ex-Marines!

[oneamericanvoice]

I sure do love stories with a happy ending! Especially where the bad guy leaves blood behind, gets a long stretch in the slammer, and learns not to pick on elders!

[randog]

pwn3d.

[SmithL]

I suspect that neither the perp nor his attorneys want to tangle with this Marine, ever again.

[oneamericanvoice]

My Dad took on young punks from time to time, and he was in his 70s. Luckily for them that they retreated. He would have cleaned the floor with them.

[oneamericanvoice]

Beware the Greatest Generation!

[andy58-in-nh]

I suspect that neither the perp nor his attorneys want to tangle with this Marine, ever again

Man, I hope so. But you know the way the world is now: no good deed goes unpunished.

[Oberon]

They say there was once an old man, wheelchair-bound, who used to wear a fancy watch and expensive silver bolo tie, and carry a silver-headed cane with him. This old man would deliberately go to bad neighborhoods where, as often as not, he would be set upon by one or more young toughs trying to roll him for his cash and jewelry. Inevitably the old man wheeled himself home whole, his valuables intact, leaving a trail of bleeding and broken yutes in his wake.

Strange? No. Just a retired Rex Applegate enjoying an evening on the town.

[oneamericanvoice]

Good for Rex! They should have paid him for their education. Guess they had to use the money for medical pills.

[freema]

Amish Geriatric Marine ping ; )

[george76]

bttt

Barnes served in the Marines, was an accomplished Golden Gloves boxer and

[fontman]

Once a Marine, always a Marine...

Semper Fidelis, fontman