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After clerk has heart attack, teens rob store instead of helping

AUBURN, Wash. — A gas station store clerk collapses, but instead of helping him, police say two teens helped themselves by stealing from the store.

Police now want to find the young thieves who left that clerk for dead.

It disgusts store manager Angela Sharapova to watch the surveillance footage of the confrontation inside her store Saturday night that ended with her employee in the hospital.

"We can't believe that this happened," Sharapova told KOMO.

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Auburn police say the clerk tried to charge a man for a couple of pepperoni sticks that two teens were eating near the counter.

They got into an argument.

Then one of the teens hands the clerk a dollar, causing him to get upset. The clerk walked around the counter to confront the teens.

"He was saying 'This is wrong and you have to pay for it,'" said Sharapova.

The clerk stepped back to behind the counter and that's when he collapsed.

Instead of calling for help, police say one of the teens took the dollar back from the clerk then bolted with the other two.

The teens returned a couple of times to steal cigarettes and $178 from the cash register.

"Their actions could cost somebody their life. What they should have done is just call 9-1-1," said Sharapova.

Several minutes passed before another customer came in to find the clerk on the ground.

That customer started performing CPR as another customer called for help.

"It just breaks our hearts. Now this guy is fighting for his life," said Sharapova.

In all of the commotion, Sharapova says she and her employees never got the names of the good Samaritans who stepped in to help the clerk.

Because of them, she says he has a fighting chance.

Sharapova says that clerk has worked for her for about 3 years.

He has a wife and 3 children, including an 8-month-old boy.

Co-workers are now trying to set up a fundraising page to help with his mounting medical bills.

CNN/KOMO

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