Whether it’s Jack White’s Third Man Records store and novelties lounge, the English vinyl collector and shop owner who sued his ex, or proprietor of London’s On The Beat Records offloading his store on eBay – it seems record store owners are a charismatic breed.
So it’s worth getting to know your local record store clerk, as most avid musicophiles will tell you, to get a taste of their encyclopaedic knowledge, some interesting insight into their stock, or you know, if they might have a violent history as a professional pugilist before you decide to shoplift from them.
Just ask Shawn Frazier, who learned his lesson the seriously hard way when he foolishly attempted a five-finger discount at Tom’s Music Trade, an independent music retailer located in Red Lion, Pennsylvania belonging to one Tom ‘Mate’ Anderton, as Fox 43 reports.
As well as his passion for music, the British born record store owner also has a love for cage fighting, having spent years as an amateur MMA brawler and three years before that as a boxer, but this was unbeknownst to Frazier when he visited the store on 7th December.
The would-be music crook had been loitering in the store for a number of hours before he approached the counter to purchase a CD, according to Anderton, who suspected that the punter had more in his pocket than he was willing to part money for.
“I went to get the rest of the stuff in his pocket and when I did that, that’s when he pulled the knife out,” the record store owner recounts; “And it was a big knife and that’s when it was on right there.”
(Images: Tom Anderton. Source: Tom‘s Music Trade Facebook page)
The retired MMA fighter and former boxer explains that his instincts kicked in once the music thief pulled his weapon, striking Frazier with a quick jab to the face before attempting to restrain him – with the aide of some in-store customers – and had him in a headlock to disarm him.
“I grabbed his arm, started shouting ‘drop the knife’,” Anderton explains while narrating a video of surveillance footage of the bungled shoplift.
“I’m not actually trying to choke him out,” the former cage figther continues in the clip. “But he’s still struggling … he’s still … in a second I just put my hand on the back of his head, apply a bit more pressure and he just goes limp.” The footage shows Frazier struggling against the record store owner’s grip before passing out entirely.
“He just went out for a couple of seconds, went unconscious for a couple of seconds and then after that he was pretty relaxed,” says ‘Mate’. Once the police arrived they arrested Frazier and charged him with felony robbery.
Anderton, a father of three daughters, said he was glad no one was injured in the incident, while his 12-year-old Abi witnessed the scuffle.
“I mean that could have gone down with my kids around, right there and I think that’s the worst part about it thinking about what could have happened,” he says. “In eight years I haven’t had anything close to that, I’m just glad no one got hurt and it worked out the way it did.”
The moral of the story? Online downloading and music streaming are a much easier and safer way of getting free music with the added benefit of little to zero risk of head trauma.
