I have no idea whether or not Gord's story is fake. It's very clearly embellished though, and I find it a bit tough to read.
That having been said I met a guy (my friend dated him and we'll call him Pete) who owned a video game store. He was robbed (for real, at knife point).
This happened in the spring of 2006, and the story goes like this:
Around closing time a thug burst into the shop with a balaclava, brandishing a knife. He ordered the owner (again, "Pete" who was working alone) to the ground and taped his wrists together. The thief's next order of business was to round up as much rare gaming merchandise as he could.
The thing about "Pete" is that he was a huge collector of rare games from days gone by. I was only in his store once, but it was really impressive. Aside from the Eastern motif (some banners, samurai swords etc.), the collection of games was staggering. I'm not used to seeing Panzer Dragoon Saga and all sorts of rare Neo Geo carts in the same place. Pete was a huge collector. He was passionate about making money off people willing to pay the price...I think he thought they were all suckers.
He was had a fondness for Harry Houdini, the legendary escape artist.
He also....had a passion for being a goddamn black belt.
So back to the robbery. The thief had tied Pete's wrists together as they were held out in front of him. When Pete twisted his wrists so they hung vertically, there was enough wiggle room for him to get his hands free. Apparently this is a common trick among illusionists. He quickly freed his hands and charged the thief who had his back to Pete.
The criminal turned just in time to realize what was going on, but not soon enough to react. Pete had him flat on his back in moments. Apparently the beat down was an unrelenting assault that had the criminal screaming for mercy.
As soon as Pete stood up to call the police, the criminal managed to crawl to the doorway to escape. This is the point of the story where most of us would have completed our phone call to the cops. Instead, Pete grabbed one of the swords off of his wall and chased the motherfucker for three blocks.
He didn't catch him, and nothing was stolen.
I'm not sure if he made any clever puns, ala-Gord....but it impressed me regardless.
