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I QUIT: Off-licence owner David Connolly who is fed up of being targeted by ‘idiots’.
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Shop owner driven out of town by thugs
Vicki Holman16/ 5/2007
AN off-licence owner who suffered a CS gas attack has quit the town after a robber assaulted his wife the next night.
Father-of-three David Connolly, 50, had CS gas sprayed in his face at Jimmy's off-licence and convenience store in Tower Street on Saturday, April 14.
The have-a-go hero, punched the 'idiot' robber as he tried to grab cash from the till, sending the raider running into a fridge door and leaving £6.20 and his two cans of lager on the counter as he fled the scene.
But the shop owner and his wife Brenda, 43, left Heywood altogether after a robber jumped over the counter and assaulted Mrs Connolly the following night
Mr Connolly said: "My wife didn't want to work there anymore because she was a bit concerned.
"The CS gas attack was the first time anything like that had happened but there was another incident the night after.
"This guy came in and was a bit abusive so my wife refused to serve him, so he jumped over the counter and knocked her into the cigarette machine and injured her knee. That is what finished it. After the first night we would probably have thought 'well, ok', but I would never have left her on her own again."
The couple ran Jimmy's for two years before deciding to sell. They say they never encountered any major problems before.
Mr Connolly said: "We got out of the shop in November and moved into a flat in Middleton.
"We lived above Jimmy's for two years and never really had any problems before.
"We never had the shutters down at all.
"In the first six to eight months we barred two adults for buying alcohol for children and so we didn't have kids hanging around outside or anything.
"We thought we would carry on running the shop until we sold it but after those incidents my wife thought it wasn't worth it. She says the next one could come in with a knife or even a gun."
CLICK on the video link below to see CCTV footage of the CS gas attack ...
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17/05/2007 at 18:14
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