
Huffington Post– An Egyptian kebab shop owner in New Zealand has become an internet hit after a video of him ignoring a would-be robber and continuing to serve a customer went viral, drawing more than a quarter of a million views.
Said Ahmed, owner of the Egyptian Kebab House in Christchurch, said it was simply a “lucky” reaction to ignore the masked man, who walked into his restaurant on May 28 and demanded cash while holding what appeared to be a gun.
Ahmed, who has run his kebab shop for 15 years, continued to bag up an order and handed it to a customer before walking away to call the police, the video shows, leaving the attempted robber to exit empty handed.
Canterbury Police released CCTV footage of the incident on Facebook last week in a bid to identify the would-be robber. The 27-second clip has since drawn 255,000 views and has been shared more than 1,000 times.
Ahmed, 55, who was quickly dubbed by social media as the “chillest chip shop operator”, said he was only thinking of his family and thought walking away would avoid a more serious outcome.
“I’m not a hero but, you know, I controlled my reaction,” he told New Zealand media. “Quite lucky because that reaction come to my head in that moment.”
My god that’s embarrassing. I don’t even think prison would be as bad as the social stigma in the crime world of not getting an ounce of respect from a shop owner or the fucking customer picking up their food while you pretty much play cops and robbers over there by your self. The only way I could see this happening is if it was like the Van Buren Boys episode of Seinfeld where Costanza tries to fake rob the Seinfeld’s so he doesn’t get beat up, but even he kinda at least threw Morty and Helen off kilt for a second. This guy on the other hand just gets treated like a social pariah or the town leper where people think even acknowledging them will get you sick. Best outcome would’ve been he take off the ski mask and say it was all a joke and order a falafel pita or maybe a nice spinach pie and continue on his day praying his attempt doesn’t end up on line for the world to laugh out. But now that its out there, he’s not gonna get any respect as a criminal. Can’t cut it on a normal 9-5, can’t cut it in a ski mask robbing people at gun point, all you really can do now is just kill yourself.