[Vision2020] Former Marine, 72, Pummels Alleged Thief

[Tom Hansen]

>From the Army Times -

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Former Marine, 72, pummels alleged thief

http://tinyurl.com/ys8jpp
Bill Barnes, 72, of Walker, Mich., stands in the Next Door Store, where he
thwarted an attempted pickpocket. He punched the man into submission and a
store manager held the suspect down until police arrived.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Bill Barnes says he was scratching off a losing $2
lottery ticket inside a gas station when he felt a hand slip into his
front-left pants pocket, where he had $300 in cash.

He immediately grabbed the person's wrist with his left hand and started
throwing punches with his right, landing six or seven blows before a store
manager intervened.

"I guess he thought I was an easy mark," Barnes, 72, told The Grand Rapids
Press for a story Tuesday.

He's anything but an easy mark: Barnes served in the MarineCorps, was an
accomplished Golden Gloves boxer and retired after 20 years as an iron
worker.

Jesse Daniel Rae, 27, was arraigned Monday in Rockford District Court on one
count of unarmed robbery.

Barnes said he had just withdrawn the money from a bank machine and put it
in the pocket of his shorts before driving to a service station in Comstock
Park, a Grand Rapids suburb.

He remembers noticing a patron acting suspiciously, asking the price of
different brands of cigarettes and other items. While turned away, Barnes
felt the hand in his pocket, so he took action.

"I guess I acted on instinct," he said.

Kent County sheriff's deputies said the store manager quickly came around
the counter. The three struggled through the front door, where two witnesses
said the manager slammed Rae to the ground and held him there.

"There was blood everywhere," said another manager on duty, Abby Ostrom, 25.

Barnes was a regional runner-up in Golden Gloves competition in the novice
and open divisions before enlisting in the Marine Corps in 1956.

After retiring as an iron worker, he now works part-time as a starter at a
golf course.

Barnes said he'd probably do the same thing again under the same
circumstances, if for no other reason than what he would face back home.

"I wouldn't want my wife to give me hell for lettin' that guy get my money,"
he said with a smile.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The college
students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."

- Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)