Tulsa Liquor Store Clerks Tackle Serial Robber, Say They Were Ready For Him

“I'm 6'2 probably 280,” Jacob Tigges said. “Once I got my hands on him, he wasn't gonna get away from me. I felt pretty confident in that.”

Thursday, November 6th 2014, 6:27 pm

By: Tess Maune

Tulsa Liquor Store Clerks Tackle Serial Robber, Say They Were Ready For Him

A Tulsa man who fought off an armed robber shared his story only with News On 6.

It was all caught on tape and it's some the best surveillance video you'll see.

Clerks at the Garnett Plaza Liquor Store held the suspect, Timothy Shannon, until police got to the scene Wednesday night.

Video surveillance shows that confidence helped catch a bad guy, that and the strength of three big, burly liquor store clerks.

“I'm 6'2 probably 280,” Jacob Tigges said. “Once I got my hands on him, he wasn't gonna get away from me. I felt pretty confident in that.”

Tigges is the man in the video who is working behind the counter on what was a slow Wednesday night shift. But things picked with when another man showed up with a gun in his waistband.

“He pulled out his weapon and he said, 'Give me all the money in the cash register,'” Tigges said.

Tigges calmly did what the man said. He slowly stacked bills, while keeping a close eye on the gun, which the suspect eventually put away.

“I asked him a question, 'Do you want the change as well?' and he thought for a second, and that's where I saw my opportunity,” he said. “I grabbed his hands and pulled him towards me as hard as I could and didn't let go.”

11/6/2014 Related Story: Tulsa Police: Liquor Store Employees Tackle Armed Robber

Tackling comes naturally to Tigges, a former Union High School state champion and college football lineman. But he didn't do it alone.

Within seconds of the takedown, one co-worker jumped in, while another came up behind the suspect putting him in a chokehold.

That's when Tigges was able to wrestle the gun away, clear the clip and toss it to the side.

“Get the gun away from him, [and] he's not as dangerous as he was,” Tigges said.

The store clerks were ready because on the day of the robbery, they had just seen a report about another liquor store being robbed and they paid close attention to the suspect description.

“We were just like, 'aw man, if he comes we're gonna be ready.' And we were. …The last thing I heard was a Thunder hat [on the suspect description],” Tigges said. “When he came up to my register and I saw his hat, I instantly got a bad feeling about it”

His bad feeling had faded by the time it was all over and Tigges was thankful he'd helped end the suspect's crime spree.

“We want this to be a safe place for everybody to come, and with people like that going around robbing three or four stores, nobody's gonna feel safe, so as least we could try and help the community, “Tigges said. “We caught a local bandit that had been terrorizing other stores around here.”

Tigges's boss, Joni Clark, said while the three clerks didn't have to take down the would-be-robber, she is proud of them.

“They could have gave him the money and let him go,” Clark said. “This is our store, don't come in here and do this, I think that's how they felt last night.”

Timothy Shannon was arrested for robbing two liquor stores and a Family Dollar Store, all since Tuesday.

Detectives say Shannon told them he did it for rent money. Tigges says Shannon apologized several times during the hold up.