Good Samaritan recounts stopping bingo hall robbery

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The good Samaritan who stopped a man trying to rob a west suburban Bolingbrook bingo hall Saturday is recounting the tense moments and his quick decisions for the first time.

Patrick Daly, 24, is accused of painting his face black and using a knife to take $4,000 from the cashier at the First Class bingo hall in the 300-block of Commons Drive.

As Daly tried to get away, one person tackled him and then others helped hold him down until police arrived.

That person was Jacques Robinson, a bingo hall regular who had a keen eye at the concession stand.

"I noticed a guy come in in all black. It kind of-it looked kind of strange to me," Robinson said.

The game carried on; even Robinson wasn't immediately sure what the guy was up to.

"The perpetrator brandished the knife and said to him, 'Just hand me the money and nobody will get hurt,'" said Harland London, owner of First Class Bingo and Raffle.

"I seen the cashier with his hands up, that's when I knew what was going on," Robinson said.

The armed robbery took place in a hall filled with nearly 90 players, many of them senior citizens.

"He turned and literally went airborne, tackled him from behind, the clerk yelled 'He just robbed me!'" said Marie Smit, who captured the robbery on her cell phone.

"He was strong. I held him down and four other guys held him down and he was still getting up," Robinson said.

What Robinson didn't know at the time was that the thief was armed with a knife. When police hauled Daly, already on parole for drug charges, out of the bingo hall, they did so to a standing ovation.