The Old Times: Holdup Frustrated; Victim Slugs Gunman


 This story is from the Monitor Leader, which was a Mt. Clemens based newspaper. This story comes from December 11th, 1945. It took place in a little town called Van Dyke, which is now Warren. Here's some information that I stole from Wikipedia:

Van Dyke was a community along the northern boundary of Detroit, Michigan, near Van Dyke Avenue and 9 Mile Road. The town was named for Van Dyke Avenue, which was named for James Van Dyke, Mayor of Detroit in 1847. This was in the southern end of what was then Warren Township, Macomb County, Michigan. The Van Dyke Post Office operated from 1925 until 1957.

The town of Van Dyke was platted by Walter Piper in 1917 and its streets named for autos being manufactured at the time. Street names (still in existence) include Packard, Hudson, Marmon, Ford, Dodge, Paige, Republic, Federal, Hupp, Maxwell, Cadillac, Studebaker, Chalmers and Automobile. The two main auto engine manufacturers of the time-Continental and Lozier, also got street names. It was annexed into Warren, Michigan when the township was made into a city in 1957. Its identity is still preserved by Van Dyke Public Schools.

Now that we have the setting, let's get to the article. 

VAN DYKE-Although armed with a pistol a would-be bandit on Friday night fled, without loot, when the manager of a super-market struck him in the face with his fist.

Frank Brubaker, manager of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea company store on Van Dyke avenue, south of Nine Mile road, told Chief Deputy Sheriff Coraelius Gudneau that the holdup attempt occurred in the parking lot behind the store after he had closed up for the night.

"I was just walking toward my car," Brubaker reported, "when a man stepped from another parked machine and thrust a pistol into my stomach. "This is a holdup,' he said and, without thinking, I let go'a haymaker.

"It must have been just a case of automatic reflexes," the store manager said, himself somewhat astounded by his reaction.

"In any event I ran back alongside the building where I gained cover just as I heard the gunman shout 'Stop, or I shoot.""

The store manager and a 16- year-old boy who happened to be passing the store said that the gunman then jumped into his car, where an accomplice was waiting, and fled south on Van Dyke avenue.

Brubaker described the bandit as being about 30 years of age, five feet, eight inches in height and wearing a light-colored coat, with a hat tipped at a jaunty angle.

Frank Brubaker, local badass. Even the way he talks is badass: "I let go'a haymaker." Someone puts a gun up to him and first reaction is clobber the guy. This goon is clearly a brilliant mind too. He puts a gun in a guy's stomach and gets walloped, and as the victim is running away he tells him to stop or he'll shoot. Dude, he wasn't stopping when you had a gun in his stomach, he's not stopping down the street either. Perhaps it was the hat tipped at a jaunty angle that betrayed his judgment in the end. Chief Deputy Sheriff Coraelius Gudneau, who might I say carries a ridiculous title and name, eventually tracked down the criminal who turned out to be none other than current Warren Mayor/Vampire Jim Fouts. 

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