A young boy is being hailed as a hero after bravely standing up squarely to challenge an armed robber who stormed a store to rob.
The boy attacked the robber in the store
An incredible surveillance footage captures the moment a seven-year-old boy tackled an armed robber with a fluffy toy during a robbery.
Two masked men in hoodies stormed GameStop, a video game store, in Silver Spring, Maryland at 9pm last Friday.
But before they made it to the cashier, one came face-to-face with a child customer. The suspect tries to grab the boy - but the boy punches him twice in the stomach.
Unfortunately the child's efforts were not enough. The men pushed him and his mother against a wall then ordered staff at gunpoint to hand over cash and their belongings.
They ran out the front of the store, which is just north of Washington D.C., and escaped in a car.
However, police praised the efforts of the boy, who used a toy in his valiant act of self-defense.
The boy's mother, who did not want to identify herself or her son, told NBC: 'Well, he's tough. He's tough and, you know, I think instincts come out in situations like that.'
His father said: 'It was scary. You're never prepared for something like that. You're not. So, you don't wish it on your worst enemy.
'When it's a young child, it's especially upsetting and infuriating for us because there's some innoncence that's lost there and there's some fear introduced into his life that, of course, he doesn't deserve.'
The suspects are described as two men in their 20s, both around 170 pounds and about 5'6" tall.
Investigators did not release an estimate of the value of stolen goods.
Watch the video below:
It is not the first time a Maryland GameStop has been the target of a heist. There were two heists at GameStop stores in Anne Arundel County - not far from Silver Springs - in January.
On January 4, two men stole game systems, cash and phones from a branch in Glen Burnie, which is between Baltimore and Annapolis on the East Coast.
Two weeks later another robbery nearby sparked a helicopter car chase.