"I felt like they could have killed me. I got angry because of the packs of gum
. "
The fact that
explains the unusual situation that he had to live through is Cristian, a newsstand owner from Mar del Plata who was a new victim of insecurity. Two armed criminals entered his workplace and
shot him twice
. But, a pack of gum one time and the thief's poor aim on the other, kept the merchant alive.
The video taken by the kiosk's security camera exempts it from any interpretation. A package of gum located in front of the counter was placed between the fired gun and the kiosk stand. So unusual, so miraculous.
The violent attempted assault took place this Monday afternoon, after 2 p.m., in a store on 700 Jacinto Peralta Ramos Avenue. It is located in a very commercial area, where customers coming and going are incessant. At the kiosk SUBE is charged and services and taxes are charged, so a common image is to see lines of people to pay, charge or consume something.
There, in broad daylight,
two armed criminals broke in for robbery purposes, the sixth such business has suffered since the start of 2024
. "We are getting used to robberies happening all the time. There are many people but little security. We are alone. There are robberies daily on this block. It was our turn again," says Cristian, from his workplace, barely 24 hours after the violent episode.
In dialogue with the newspaper
La Capital
, the newsstand owner gave details of what the robbery was, and the miracle that he is still alive:
"The packs of gum saved me
," he insists. "A package of Top Line mint served as a shield for me," he details in disbelief.
Cristian said that at the time the criminals entered he was alone. And he describes the violent sequence. "They were half scared. They asked me for money, but the truth is that they surprised me, I didn't react. I was thinking about something else. There, because I didn't agree to give them anything, the person on the other side shot me."
The kiosk owner digresses in the story and admits: "I felt like they could have killed me... but when I realized that they hadn't hit me,
I grabbed a tube of pepper spray that I had next to the cash register and sprayed it on the face
of the one who confronted me asking for the money, and then the one who had shot me.
At that moment and in front of the defense with the pepper spray, he says, the second shot was fired: "He had the effect of the pepper spray in his eyes and he shot up, he didn't even see where he was aiming. They left without taking anything."
As soon as they left, the victim activated the anti-panic button to go to the Police: it did not work. A call to 911 from a neighbor alerted the authorities, who requested the videos from the security cameras and made a record of what was stolen.
“I'm not afraid, it's more helplessness and anger. A police officer told me: 'You don't have to do anything, you have to call us.' But I pressed the panic button and they didn't come. When they called them it took them 20 minutes to arrive. “I can't wait that long while I have someone with a gun pointing at me to shoot me,” she noted with resignation.
“There is always an excuse to not give us security, here the thief has more rights than the honest person who works. They entered us six times this year, six. And I'm talking because a pack of gum saved my life," she concluded.
Prosecutor Fernando Berlingeri is investigating the case and seized the film record to try to find the men and identify them. Personnel from the third police station, with jurisdiction in the area, also intervened.