Sandy MaloneHuntsville, AL – A machete-wielding robber found himself confronted by a gas station clerk who also had a machete (video below).
The incident occurred at about 3:15 a.m. on March 16 when 32-year-old Seth Holcomb tried to rob the Conoco on Pulaski Pike in Huntsville, armed with a machete, FOX News reported.
Police said that Holcomb first went into the store to make a purchase, and then left.
Then he returned and went to the counter and demanded cash from the clerk, WAFF reported.
The entire altercation was captured on the gas station’s inside and outside surveillance cameras and began when Holcomb approached the counter window armed with a knife.
The video showed he reached through the window and took swipes at the clerk, who reached below the counter and returned with a machete of his own – one which appeared to be slightly larger than the robber’s blade.
Holcomb kicked the door to the clerk’s booth, and then put his right hand in his pocket as though he were pointing a gun at the clerk.
The clerk eventually opened the door from his booth out in to the store and engaged Holcomb in a blade fight, the video showed.
With his cell phone to his ear, ostensibly calling the police, the clerk took swipes at the would-be robber, the video showed.
The robber followed him back into the booth where they two engaged in what can only be described as a sword-fight-style battle with their machetes.
The clerk pushed Holcomb back out of the booth, and so the robber went back at the clerk through the window on the counter, banging on the window with his knife, and then eventually diving through the open panel, the video showed.
When the clerk fought back, Holcomb tried to make a run for it only to find that the clerk had activated the automatic locks on the doors, sealing the machete-waving robber inside the convenience store.
Holcomb rammed the glass doors repeatedly with his body, and kicked at them, until the whole two-door gated unit collapsed.
His accomplice, 33-year-old Laney Nicholson, was on the opposite side of the doors trying to help him escape, and when the doors came down, she attacked the clerk trying to stop Holcomb from leaving.
When the clerk emerged from the wreckage of the doorway, he went after Nicholson, the video showed.
He took a swipe at her with his machete and must have made contact because the woman stopped twice as he chased her to look at her leg, although no blood could be seen.
The clerk chased her around the car, repeatedly smashing his machete into the metal and the interior as he went, the video showed.
He later told officers that he was trying to “visibly mark” the suspect’s vehicle so police could “easily recognize it,” WAFF reported.
Holcomb dropped a smaller knife on the ground and Nicholson picked it up and went after the clerk with it, the video showed.
“During that time, Holcomb has the presence of mind to go back in the store and take the cash drawer out of the register,” Huntsville Police Lieutenant Michael Johnson told WAFF.
The clerk opened the driver’s door and began slashing the inside of the car with his machete, and Nicholson went after him.
The video showed the clerk smashed her over the head with his blade and she finally backed away.
In the video, there was blood all over Nicholson’s hands as she held them to her head, but it was unclear whether her head or her hands were bleeding.
Holcomb and Nicholson fled in their vehicle but were captured shortly thereafter near a Burger King restaurant on North Memorial parkway, WAFF reported.
“Amazingly, there were no serious injuries and no medical treatment beyond first aid needed to all parties,” Lt. Johnson said.
Holcomb and Nicholson were each charged with first-degree robbery and criminal mischief, plus individual charges of theft of property and assault, according to Newsweek.
The video starts slow and progressively gets more intense. You can see it below. WARNING – Graphic Content: