Mustafa Yakupoglu, Gas Station Clerk, Grabs Robbers' Gun, Chases Them Out Of Long Island Store (VIDEO)

A Long Island gas station clerk got the jump on two would-be robbers Wednesday, snatching away a 12-gauge shotgun and chasing them out of the store.

Surveillance cameras show Mustafa Yakupoglu calmly dealing with the two thugs as they enter the store wearing masks and aiming a gun directly at him. In a flash Yakupoglu grabs the weapon from one of the stunned assailants. Seconds later the clerk can be heard yelling after the two men as they run away.

The suspects are still at large, but out a gun.

WATCH:

Comments

[JeffmChicago]

LOL I love it when the tables are turned on the robbers!

[djcrsn]

so do I--which is why I like empowering the victims by allowing them to be well armed

[prayforroy]

Sadly, DJC's "empowerment" is what led to the crooks being armed.

[Skeetshooter]

Lets hope he's so fortunate next time when these two goons show up with two guns.

[f0rTyLeGz]

The man is amazing. He is wide awake and his universe is full of options.

[podios]

I thought it was a "Beavis and Butthead rob a gas station" episode.

[VPN]

Talk about your basic "OH CHIT" moment, LOL. Good for the clerk!

[Okieborn]

Alright !!
Now this is what you gotta do !!!

[research]

LOL!

I hope I would react as well, they poked a gun in his face, and he took away from them!

[The Albany Kid]

Mustafa could become the Kaiser Soze of Long Island! :)

[Soundofthunder]

If only that clerk had a gu...no, wait, now he does.

SOT

[MizLiz]

His courage is all over the home country:

Türk esnaf ABD'de günün kahramanı
Geçtiğimiz yıl iş yerini soymaya gelen hırsızları baltayla kovalayan Hafize Şahin'in ardından New York'ta başka bir Türk vatandaşı, işyerini soymaya gelen hırsızları perişan etti.

Maskeli iki hırsızın ellerinden silahı alarak kovalayan Mustafa Yakupoğlu (47), New York'ta günün kahramanı ilan edildi.

News travels fast.

[MizLiz]

Point a gun at a Turk? Just hope you live. Good for him. What a mensch.

[cirrus9]

Turks are culturally as tough as nails. The store should have a sign out front that says "Turk on duty, rob at your own risk". Mustafa is my hero!

[djcrsn]

Good for him--I wish the hoplophobes could finally admit that defense of innocent life in general and self defense in particular is a very good and moral thing to do

[jeremyemilio]

Let this be a lesson to you: Never try to rob a guy named Mustafa, cause that guy ain't gonna be scared of your amateur, gangsta $**t.

[cirrus9]

Mustafa ain't no punk!

[djcrsn]

that is the point

[rzzza]

yeah. never mess with a guy named mustafa

[MrMilk]

As Queen said... MUSTAFA!!!

[1differentdrummer]

I think he should have put his hands up and let them take the cash. A 12 gauge at close range makes an awful mess.

[cirrus9]

I guess some people refuse to submit to the demands of criminal thugs.

Good work Mustafa!

[washlib]

and whose to say they wouldn't shoot him anyway? This is exactly the courage the good people need.

[MizLiz]

Here's a much better take on the story:
=============================================
No one likes to be held up.

So when a gun was pointed at one Long Island gas station attendant he decided he was not about to be robbed for a third time. In a split second Mustapha Yakupoglu took matters into his own hands.

The surveillance video is stunning and shows how cool Yakupoglu, known as Mumu, to his friends was. With a shot gun pointed right at him he barely flinches. The 47-year-old reaches for cash with one hand, he grabs the gun with the other and turns the tables on two spineless thugs.

"I say 'Relax, I'll give you the money,'" Mumu told PIX News. "I hold the gun up and push sideways and I take hold."

Mumu had been robbed two other times at another gas station and certainly wasn't finished after grabbing the gun away from the two bumbling bandits.

"I get the gun and the next thing you know they're shocked," said Mumu. "I say, 'I shoot you know' and they went running."

[VPN]

"they're shocked", really? LOL

[KossAtl]

It looks fake. Balloon boy looks more real than this. This prankster stuff is getting out of hand.

[cirrus9]

I'm sure that you either know Mustafa personally, or you witnessed the attempted robbery firsthand?

NO? You mean you just pulled that opinion out of your @ss, and you have no idea what you are talking about?

Sheeesh!

[bugsbonzai]

This is just what people write online for EVERYTHING. Maybe it's real, maybe it isn't. But writing this doesn't make you interesting.

[cirrus9]

"Balloon boy" only looked real to you due to your ignorance of physics. A 12 foot diameter helium balloon couldn't lift off with anything heavier than a kitten. Anyone who has taken physics 101 would have known this.

[Fudgefase]

And wasn't it just fab how everyone watched it, no doubt hoping the kid woud fall out at some point....

[SwingingFromCenter]

God bless the short-sighted. Yes, I'm talking about you commenters sitting here applauding what this guy did, calling him a "hero" and putting him up on a pedastal.

Yeah, he pulled it off - he beat the odds, which were in favour of this not working out for him. Yeah, he gets to breathe another day. And he gets 5 minutes of fame via message boards, and then everybody will forget about him.

Well, almost everybody. Cause, ya see, now at some point some 19 year old kid who plays Halo all day is going to be put in this situation, is going to try the same thing because hey, it worked for Mustafa, and it's not gonna work out so well for him. But he won't be called a hero. Oh no, he'll be called a fo.ol and a statistic. Just like Mustafa here woulda been if he was a fraction of a second slower, or the guy on the other end of the barrel a fraction of a second faster. Or stronger. Maybe the guy on the other end woulda let the thing go, and then went after Mustafa unarmed, overpowered him, got the piece back, and THEN did him in.

But hey, go back to cheering the minimum wage guy for protecting money that wasn't even his and making it sound like what he did was "smart" and/or "brave" and not simply foolhardy. Who cares about the butterfly effect?

[yellowdoggie]

It didn't look to me as if old Mustafa had a lot of time to figure out what the smart thing to do was, unlike you, who has obviously got it ALL figured out. He reacted from instinct. He survived. The good guy won this round. Why do you have a problem with that? If you asked Mustafa ahead of time, he probably would say the smart thing would be to hand over the money, too.

[PDXer]

Bow wow, yellowdoggie, bow wow!

[cirrus9]

It must be easy to judge Mustafa from the comfort and safety of your mothers basement, but what you are missing completely is that you (and most people) have never stood in this man's shoes, and when someone puts a shotgun in your face you either submit to terror, or you fight back.
I applaud Mustafa for taking swift, decisive action and NOT submitting to terror.
The only thing better would have been if Mustafa had smoked those scumb@gs right where they stood.

[leeclayton]

9 out of 10 anonymous internet tough guys agree with that course of action.

[washlib]

i don't think he cared about the money, he cared about his own life and was indignant that some punks would put it at risk. He could easily have been shot even if he complied with their demands, it's obvious that the robber had no idea how to handle a shotgun anyway.

Fight for your life, dont give an INCH!

[MizLiz]

You are overthinking this. How do you know this man hasn't seen far worse? I don't know if he's an immigrant or not, but he acted out of pure instinct. And after he handed over the money, as you think he should have done, those punks probably would have killed him anyway.

[MizLiz]

Just found out he IS an immigrant. Spent two years in the Turkish Army back in the '80s.

[SwingingFromCenter]

Statistics disagree with you. But let's not trivial things like "facts" get in the way of your hyperbole.