- News watchers were riveted.
The terrifying robbery that recently made headlines
was all caught on surveillance cameras.
Watch this.
Store clerk Angie Hershey had just arrived at her family's
check-cashing store when a robber
burst in, jumped over the counter,
and began to attack her.
He tried to tie her up and cover her mouth with masking tape,
but Angie fought back.
As he was robbing the store, the phone rang.
The robber tried to yank the cord out of the wall
but instead, he merely knocked the phone off the hook.
Angie's husband, Cy, was on the other end of the phone
listening helplessly to what was happening.
He hung up and placed this call to 911.
[PHONE RINGING]
Thanks to her husband, her cool head, and advice
she says she heard right here on the "Oprah Show,"
Angie survived her frightening ordeal.
She and her husband, Cy, are here today
and we're glad to see you here. ANGI: Thank you.
We're glad to be here.
[APPLAUSE]
Wow.
Is it true that you first thought the attack was a joke?
Initially.
I mean, a yellow banana basically
jumped over the counter--
OPRAH: Yeah.
And I thought, you know, this-- if someone was attacking
me, he's be wearing black.
Or-- and then when the gun was in my face is when I realized,
nope, this is not a joke.
And when he pulled the phone out, or tried
to pull the phone out of the wall
because you were calling at that moment--
Yeah, it was ringing. Exactly.
And that is just something I always do
whenever she does work there.
She doesn't work there often.
We were trying to give the employees a day off on that day
and so she went in, and I called just right-- you know,
three minutes after she got there to see if everything
was OK for that exact thing.
And unfortunately, it wasn't, and something horrible
was happening.
And it was probably the--
well, it was the worst experience of my life
to hear that and to hear how scared she was because we'd
been married seven years. - What did you hear?
- I-- - What did you hear?
I just hear her saying, you know, I won't move.
I won't move. Please don't hurt me.
Take whatever you want.
And you can just hear in her voice
that it was-- she was so terrified and so scared.
And it just made my heart drop.
And so I immediately called 911 and then actually asked
my six-year-old to watch my one-year-old and took off
and called my mother-in-law and had her get there.
And it was just--
OPRAH: And how soon were you rescued?
Um, not for a while, and not until he was gone.
After he attacked me and got the money, I thought, OK.
He's-- I'm gonna give him anything he wants.
I gave him the money.
He-- I then, you know-- he said, I want more and we had no more.
So then I said, you can have my diamond ring.
You can have my car.
You can have my purse. It's right there.
Take it.
Just take it and go.
And he grabbed me and asked where the bathroom was.
And that's when the red flag went up
and I remembered from watching "Oprah" a long time ago,
don't ever let your attacker take
you to that second location.
And so I knew, since he dominated me so physically,
I either had to get him mentally or emotionally.
And that's when I--
OPRAH: Because how big was he?
He was 6' 6", double my weight and size.
He was huge. OPRAH: Yeah.
And I know there's no way-- like,
an elbow's not gonna hurt him. Nothing's gonna hurt him.
OPRAH: Yeah.
But I knew that if I started pleading to his emotions,
maybe, you know, he'll see me as a person.
And I started to say, I have two little kids.
Please don't hurt me.
I'm their mom.
And I knew he had a mom and maybe, you know,
that would hit something.
And he still started to take me to the bathroom.
And I knew if he was going to take me to the bathroom, Oprah,
I was going to fight and he would've had
to do it with me unconscious.
But when he opened the door to the hall, it hit me.
I could tell him there were people down there,
because there are offices.
On Saturday, there's never anyone there.
But I said, if you take me down this hall.
Someone's gonna see us. You're gonna get caught.
You can't take me down there.
Stuck his head down the hall, closed the door, locked it.
And that was my first little signal
that, hey, maybe I can be OK.
And he drug me over to the corner,
start to try and tie me up, cover my eyes, tie my arms up,
and I started to try to appeal to him saying,
hey, you're gonna get caught. You gotta get going.
You gotta run. You gotta go.
You're gonna get caught.
Can't hurt me.
Please, I'm a mom.
And I would squirm, and I would get away a little bit.
And I squirm again, and I get away a little bit.
And so I thought, well, I'll keep squirming.
You could tell in the whole video
he's trying to stay behind her because he doesn't want to--
I think that's why he jumped over initially,
'cause I mean, that's what infuriates me is, why the heck
didn't he just ask for the money?
We would've given him the money. OPRAH: Yeah.
And look, I mean, he didn't have to be so physical
and mean. I mean, he hit her head so hard.
And but that's because I think, you know, she recognized him.
That's how we caught him so fast.
But he's trying to stay behind, but--
- You did recognize him. - I did.
I kept going, I know you, thinking,
I didn't want to tell him that, of course.
But I kept thinking, I know this guy.
I know him.
How could he not know that I could recognize him?
I mean, he's 6 foot 6".
You don't forget a 6 foot 6" guy very often.
Yeah.
How did you know him?
He was in our store three days earlier
to get a loan, visited with me for about 20 minutes,
and I remember looking at him going,
gee, he's a gentle giant.
You know, he was really nice.
And I was not scared by him at all.
Did you ever think he was going to kill you?
I did. I did.
And that's why I thank you.
I really do.
I thought, if he takes me to this bathroom,
I'm not coming out of that cold, dark bathroom.
I'm not coming out.
And I'm gonna stay.
And it's one of those pinnacle moments when you think,
this is it.
Everything I know I have to use to stay alive.
OPRAH: Yeah.
We have that tape.
Never allow them to take you somewhere else.
Never.
If everyone in this room and everyone watching this program
has never drawn the line and made a decision on crime
protection, you better make it when they decide to move you
from crime scene number one to crime scene
number two, because at crime scene number two,
it's going to be isolated.
You won't choose it.
You'll be the focus of the crime.
That was Sanford Strong and that was one of the things I
never, ever, ever forgot.
And I'm glad you didn't, either.
Police arrested 28-year-old Junior Fire
who confessed to the robbery.
He is currently in jail awaiting trial.
Oh, boy.
We're so proud to have her.
It's just amazing.
It was so scary to know as a husband
that there was nothing I could do.
And I'm just so proud of how she acted and just did everything
she could to make sure she still could be
my wife and a great mother to our kids,
and we're so thankful, Oprah.
[APPLAUSE]
OPRAH: Thank you, Angi and Cy.