The video of a raid on an Austrian tobacconist, a kind of kiosk, which has been circulating online for a few days, is remarkable for several reasons. On the one hand, because the scene, which was captured by the surveillance camera and published by the Graz police, shows the level-headed reaction of an employee and her boss to a robber. When the man demands money with a (fake) pistol drawn, the tobacconist says that it is 6 p.m. and the cash register is already closed. He should come back another time. Just like people in Austria get turned down, friendly, with a lot of “Thank you” and “I’m sorry”, but firmly.
Also noteworthy is the analogy to the song “Bank robbery” of the First general uncertainty from Austria, which is probably still stuck in the ear canals of many people who were socialized in the 1980s (“Ba-ba-ba-ba-bank robbery, evil is always and everywhere!”). In it, a robber “with his finger in his coat instead of a puff” tries to get money at a bank counter, but is stopped by the bank clerk with the words “What do you think of?” rejected. The song ends with the line: “Okay, I say, then I’ll just pay something.”
Most notable, however, is the 41-year-old tobacconist Marco Koller. When asked how he kept his nerve in the situation, he told the default, the thing with the closed till was a trick, a joke, as they say in Austria. “Gitti said of her own accord that the cash register wouldn’t open, and I looked at the clock at the same time. It was 6 p.m. sharp and I thought to myself: I’ll try that now.” Gitti is the clerk who was just standing at the cash register. In the course of the robbery, he then noticed “that the guy is harmless” and that “it’s better to get off talking to him”. At the end of the video you can see how the rejected would-be robber comes back and tries to negotiate. Also very Austrian a little something is always possible. But one would not have been surprised if he had bought something.