Man tried to rob store at gunpoint, left when realizing there wasn't enough cash to pay for daughter's operation: cops

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A Philadelphia man tried to rob a convenience store because he said he needed money to pay for his daughter’s kidney transplant but then left the store without taking anything when he realized there wasn’t enough cash in the register to pay for the operation, police said.

PHILADELPHIA POLICE RELEASE VIDEO TO HELP APPREHEND 60 SUSPECTS CAUGHT ON CAMERA ROBBING A WALGREENS

Surveillance video showed a man wielding a gun as he demanded cash from the woman behind the counter, Philadelphia’s KYW-TV reported. The clerk said the man had at least a couple hundred dollars in his hand when he suddenly became “friendly” and said there was not enough money there to pay for the operation.

He then returned the money and left without harming anyone. "That was unbelievable, what happened because he actually had the money in his hand and refused to take it,” the store owner who identified only as Kimo told Richmond’s WWBT.

The would-be thief is still in “violation of the law” for committing a robbery even though he didn’t walk away with anything, Philadelphia Police Capt. Sekou Kinebrew said. "If you are going to commit a robbery, I guess the best type of robbery to commit is one where you don’t complete it and change your mind,” he added.

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Police said they are working to track down the suspect and may be willing to help the man's daughter if there is any truth behind the story. “I think for willing to use the gun or taking it out of his pocket, he should be punished for that, but in the same time, as a society, we should do something to help people like that and not push him to the edge where they have to use a gun,” Kinebrew said.