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Cell phone store manager helps stop larceny

GRPD says the man grabbed the officer's baton and struck him with it, and also attempted to grab the officer's gun.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Until Wednesday, there had never been a larceny attempt at Wireless Zone in Grand Rapids.

"This has been a very safe location, absolutely," says manage Ronjiv Roy.

 But Roy was ready for it nonetheless.

"Adrenaline was pumping," he recalls. "I don't want to lose any of my property."

Roy says right away when the man came through this door, he felt something was off.

"We kind of had some suspicions about what they may or may not be doing here," says Roy.

After realizing a display phone was missing from his desk, he discretely called police. An officer with the Grand Rapids Police Department showed up shortly to make the arrest.

"The guy didn't want to be detained, obviously, so it turned into a wrestling match that ended up in the back of the store," says Roy.

GRPD says the man grabbed the officer's baton and struck him with it, and also attempted to grab the officer's gun. In the scuffle, a water fountain was knocked off a wall.

When Roy saw this, he decided to intervene.

"I jumped out in front of my desk and made sure he wasn't getting out the front door," says Roy. "I just threw him into the chairs and just got onto his back."

Roy credits his high school wrestling experience for helping him keep the man detained.

"Coach Mills from FHC wrestling, good coaching," he laughs. "Had good back control, rode the hips."

He says at one point the officer told him he was going to fire his taser, which ended up getting Roy as well.

"I kind of got shocked a little bit with that, but that's fine, I'm fine," says Roy.

His family has run the store for 11 years, and he compared robbing it to robbing his home, which is why he was so determined to stop it.

"I didn't want to see it escape the store," he says. "I wanted to keep it inside and have the arrest made here."

All of the items the man attempted to steal, including an iPhone 12 and an employee's car keys, were recovered.

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