Caught on video: Nanaimo teenager hits would-be armed robber with baseball bat

A teenager in Nanaimo, B.C., is being hailed as a hero by his family after a would-be robber entered their business and the boy scared him off with a baseball bat.

Fourteen-year-old Jake Currie was working Wednesday at his family’s business, Abbies Corner Store at 531 Second St.

Surveillance video shows a suspect entering the store around 8:47 p.m. wearing a ski mask and holding a knife. The suspect demanded money from Currie.

The corner store is also where Currie’s family lives, and his stepsister and her four-month-old baby were in the room next door.

Knowing this, Currie calmly pulled out a baseball bat from behind the counter and swung at the suspect.

“I hit him with the bat; he lost his knife and backed up a bit,” Currie says.

The robber then asked why Currie hit him with the bat.

“I was like, 'What do you expect? You had a knife to me,'” he added.

Before leaving, the suspect tried looking for the knife and asked for it back. He then left the store without the knife and took off down the street.

The whole ordeal lasted less than a minute.

Abbies Corner Store opened five months ago and this is the first time someone has tried to rob it.

Currie’s stepdad Marcel Trudeau thinks the boy went above and beyond to protect the store and his family.

“I’d never expected him to hit somebody with a baseball bat,” says Trudeau. “But I think it was because my daughter and her baby are here.”

Nanaimo RCMP responded and took the knife as evidence. They told the family they believe the suspect is the same person who robbed a locally run grocery store with a knife last week.