Minneapolis Muslim Chases Down Robber, Returns Stolen Money to Owner

An excerpt from an article in the Star Tribune of Minneapolis-St. Paul:

A man comes running out of the chow mein restaurant, run by a Chinese woman who is afraid to tell me her name. Her restaurant is two doors from Bosaad’s store.

The man is carrying the drawer from the restaurant’s cash register and is running westerly, past Maxwell’s Corner Deli, which is located between the chow mein restaurant and the corner grocery. The deli is run by an Egyptian immigrant, Adel Hamid.

The robber runs past several young men from the neighborhood, who do nothing to stop his flight.

“But now look at this,” says Bosaad, pointing to the recorded images. “Watch this man.”

It is the Egyptian, Hamid. He steps out of his business and starts chasing the robber, who, obviously frightened, drops the cash drawer at the Emerson-Lowry intersection and runs across Emerson.

Hamid stays in pursuit, finally catching the punk out of camera range.

Why would Hamid chase after a man who could have been armed?

“I am a Muslim,” said Hamid. “That is what I should do. You help your neighbor.”

When he caught the robber, Hamid turned and looked back.

There were more than a dozen young men and maybe a couple of young women picking up bills that were in and around the cash drawer.

Watching this on the digital images, it as if people had slimed out from under rocks. At the beginning, there are only a few. But they are joined by more and more.

“At first I thought they were there to help the Chinese woman get her money back,” said Hamid. “But then I saw they were taking the money.”

Hamid released the robber and raced back to the intersection. He grabbed the cash drawer and took as much money as he could from the hands of the pathetic young people.

He returned what he could recover to the Chinese woman.

Read more:

• Star Tribune: A lonely battle against crime on one corner