Isidro Servin returned to work less than 12 hours after a
teenage boy struck him in the back of the head with a metal
pipe.
Isidro Servin returned to work less than 12 hours after a teenage boy struck him in the back of the head with a metal pipe.
Gilroy Police said they arrested the 16-year-old male early Monday morning for robbery and assault with a deadly weapon after he stole a 30-pack of Budweiser from the 7-Eleven at 162 W. 10th St. and then hit Servin and another employee with a concealed pipe as they tried to stop him.
A blood-soaked bandage stuck to the back of Servin’s balding head Monday afternoon as he recounted the attack with employees and friends. He even bagged a few customers’ purchases while doing so.
“I came back here. I work here,” Servin, an employee at 7-Eleven for the past 10 years, said. He still wore his hospital wrist band, and with shrugs and eye-rolls, he brushed off the violent attack as something that just happens every once in a while.
“Now he can take a vacation,” one colleague said with a smile.
“No, I don’t need a vacation,” Servin said quietly.
Surveillance footage shows two Hispanic males entering the family-owned store shortly before midnight Sunday. A couple and another customer waited in line as the suspect police said they arrested walked back into frame and toward the door with the big red box of beer. Having witnessed the juvenile stealing beer from the store before, Servin positioned himself by the door while another employee swept the parking lot outside. A third manned the register.
When the juvenile suspect attempted to casually walk out with the beer, Servin grabbed him. The juvenile squirmed away with the 30-pack and headed out the door, and then struck the employee with the pipe tucked into his waistband. As Servin turned around to call 911, the juvenile darted back toward the closing door and struck Servin’s head with an overhead swing. The customers jerked back in fear before helping Servin, who received 17 staples at the hospital, according to police.
After the assailant fled, his acquaintance lingered in the store shortly afterward before purchasing a bag of snacks. He left the store calmly and picked something up from the parking lot on his way out. Police did not report the second male in a press release from 5 a.m. Monday.
GPD Sgt. Jim Gillio could not comment as to what he picked up, nor could he confirm if police recovered the weapon from the scene.
Joseph Baby, owner of Charlie’s Liquors next door, did not work Sunday but said he normally closes at 11 p.m. Sundays. Since the beginning of the year, he has called police about six times to report beer thefts, he said, but he never chases the thieves.
“Look what happens,” Baby said as he checked inventory with a Pepsi delivery driver. “The teens in this area are tough … Beer stealing happens often, often, often,” Baby said.
As painful as it may be to see someone come in and repeatedly steal from their shelves, store employees should wait for police to intervene, Sgt. Gillio said.
“We recommend witnesses and victims document what they see – whether it be a description, clothing, tattoos, vehicles and license plates – and then report that to the police,” Gillio said. “We want that clerk to go home to his family just like us, and you never know what a suspect’s motivation is.”
