Two Sex Shop Employees Chased Off An Armed Robber By Throwing Dildos At Him

The owner of the store told BuzzFeed News it's the single "oddest thing" she's ever seen.

On Wednesday evening, an armed man walked into a sex toy and lingerie store in San Bernardino, California, and pointed his gun at two employees behind the counter, attempting to rob their registers.

ABC 7

The incident happened around 9:45 pm, right before employees of the store, Lotions & Lace, were preparing to close.

Owner Janel Hargreaves told BuzzFeed News she received a call around 9:50 pm that evening from her employees in the store telling her "you might want to come here," she said.

Hargreaves immediately got into her car and drove into the city.

When she arrived, she said she found multiple items in her store strewn throughout the store, on the floors.

"There were toys everywhere," she said. "I was dumbfounded."

According to video surveillance footage released by police, the employees started throwing sex toys — including dildos and other masturbation toys — at the man.

youtube.com

Hargreaves said she found several "Pocket Pals" — a sex toy modeled after female anatomy, she explained — near the store entrance.

"I was like, 'Did you guys throw these at them?!’"

She said she was also taken aback that they had not just handed the money over to him.

"I guess they were so angry," she said. "How could you not give it over to someone with a gun?"

One of the women at the store, Amy Olive, told ABC Eyewitness News 7 that she wasn't rattled by the gunman at all. "I saw the gun and it was like, 'Really? I don't have time for this,'" she said.

abc7.com

"With the gun, he walked in. I just thought he was trying to be funny, to scare us," she said.

Olive later told BuzzFeed News that she was "automatically irritated" when the gunman walked in.

"I just wanted to go home and rest after a long day at work," she said.

But she admits she was lucky that the outcome wasn't different for her and her coworker: "I'm really thankful he walked away," she added. "I know how I reacted wasn't a smart move."

The robber ended up fleeing the store, empty-handed, but cameras outside the store captured the man with his face uncovered.

abc7.com

"I think he was a coward," said Maria, Olive's coworker. "Coming in and trying to get over on two females and not realizing that we're pretty feisty."

Hargreaves told BuzzFeed News this incident "is the oddest thing" she has ever witnessed.

abc7.com

"By far this is the oddest thing I’ve seen in my life... employees fighting back like that," she said.

"Don’t argue with someone that’s got a gun!"

BuzzFeed News has reached out to San Bernardino police for any updates or leads.