Feb 28, 2008 7:13 am US/Eastern
Conn. Bank Robbery Hero Describes Ordeal
Reporting
Lou Young
WATERBURY, Conn. (CBS) ―
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Felix Sambuco was shot in the leg trying to prevent a bank robbery in Waterbury, Connecticut.
CBS
Felix Sambuco was still wearing the hospital scrubs from the emergency room when we stopped by his home in Prospect, Conn. roughly eight hours after he'd been shot. He was up and around by using a crutch and clearly favoring the leg that had NOT been shot through by a bank robber's bullet.
He was the only customer at the Webster National Bank branch on Highland Ave. in Waterbury late Wednesday morning when he noticed a strange look on the teller's face. He turned to see the masked man with a large bag approaching. "This is a robbery," he told the teller.
To Sambuco, he said, "Step back."
The 47-year-old husband and father did as he was told, but became alarmed as the robber seemed to get agitated that the teller was taking so much time filling his bag with cash.
"I just looked him up and down," he told CBS 2, "and decided I could take him." Felix tackled the man and they wrestled for a moment on the floor of the bank when a shot rang out.
The robber was armed and Sambuco had been shot through the right thigh.
As he lay there bleeding, he said the robber got up and said, "I'm not fooling around," an understatement if ever there was one. The robber jumped over the counter, filled the bag and left as Sambuco began to assess his wound. It had gone clear through, no bones broken, no major arteries hit.
"I was lucky," he admits. "I didn't see the gun, the guy never said he had a gun."
His family says the actions, although not wise, were entirely in character. Sambuco is a Battalion Chief with the Waterbury Fire Department and has always accepted danger as part of duty.
When we asked why he decided to jump the robber in the bank he said simply "I got agitated. I thought, 'You are not going to take this money. Not on my watch.'"
The gunman apparently did get away, though. Local roadblocks resulted in one arrest, but that turned out to be a drug suspect who'd apparently been spooked by the officers responding to the robbery, and led them on a short chase before being shot and taken into custody.
Still, Waterbury Police Chief Neil O'Leary didn't hesitate to call Sambuco a hero. "He was thinking about the teller and gun pointed at her," he explained. Sambuco says his wife is less enthusiastic about what he did and had already gone to bed exhausted from all the excitement and worry of the day. His grown daughter Dora though was keeping her Dad company and said his actions were entirely in character.
Was it a risky choice? Sure.
"But you can't go back in time," she said. "He's my hero."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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