Armed Citizen: 'You Are Not Robbing This Bank!'

June 22nd, 2008 8:58 AM

In the latest in a long series of Armed Citizen stories that the media works strenuously to ignore, a man named Nabil Fawzi is the toast of the Detroit area. Courtesy of Cam Edwards once again, see the Detroit News report:

A longtime customer brazenly stood up to a suspected would-be bank robber at a Comerica bank on Monday and detained the man until police showed up.

At about 9 a.m., police said a 54-year-old Washtenaw County man walked into a Comerica branch in the 45400 block of Michigan Avenue and handed the teller a handwritten note demanding money.

It also indicated he was strapped with a bomb, police said in a release.

When the suspect demanded "bands of 50s and 100s," police said, the clerk hit the bank's silent alarm and began placing money in a bag.

A teller at an adjacent counter noticed the incident and alerted the longtime customer.

Police said the customer then pulled out a gun, pointed it at the suspect and told him, "You are not robbing this bank."

"But I have a bomb," the suspect said, according to police.

The customer replied: "I don't care. You are not robbing this bank!"

The customer, who has not been named, then led the suspect to a chair, sat him down and held him at gunpoint until police came.

The Detroit Free Press offered more:

The celebration honoring Nabil Fawzi on Friday at the Sunoco gas station in Ypsilanti continued long after the free hot dogs ran out and the discounted gas was hiked back to $3.89 a gallon.

It seemed like everyone who stopped at the station at Ecorse Road and Redwood Avenue during the late afternoon wanted to shake his hand, hug him or tell him what a good job he did.

On Monday, Fawzi, 39, of Dearborn, who is known to his customers as Bill, thwarted a robbery at a Comerica Bank branch on Michigan Avenue in Canton.

"It's been a long four days, five days," Fawzi said. "It's been like this all day."

Media outlets from around the country have sought interviews since his identity was released Tuesday. He's already done 14 radio interviews, he said.

The local TV stations, the networks, cable news outlets and various newspapers all want to know about the bank customer who pulled out a 9mm handgun and faced down a man who claimed to have a bomb...

Fawzi, a Lebanese immigrant who served in the army during that country's civil war, runs Mr. Bucks, a check-cashing service based at the gas station. On Friday, he fielded questions and compliments from his customers.

"I heard about that when I was working," said Nicole Fisher of Ypsilanti. "That's awesome."

One man gave Fawzi a thumbs up. "Good work at the bank," he said.

Cam interviewed Fawzi on Friday night, and you can find it at NRANews.com. We'll see if any national news outlets ever notice.