NORTH MIAMI, Fla. – Police continue looking for a hooded man who tried robbing the Laughing Buddha smoke shop in North Miami on Aug. 18 at 124th Street and Biscayne Boulevard.
Kayla Seaks is the clerk seen on a surveillance video, first reaching for a phone while a customer, turned good Samaritan, jumped in and tried to stop the crook.
"They were fighting and I get thrown to the ground one good time, he's grabbing my hood like a ragdoll, but I was fine," Seaks said.
In fact, Seaks didn't give up and thought the bad guy's gun story was a bluff.
"Just going off my instincts, that's really what I was playing off of. Just going with the flow," said Seaks.
Seaks eventually gripped the phone long enough to make the crucial call.
"I was a little fidgety because I dialed 9114," Seaks said.
The would-be robber ran out of the store after fighting with the customer.
This attempted robbery now goes down as one of several businesses hit in recent weeks, all likely by the same man, claiming to be armed each time.
"The danger is someone might believe he's not (armed), when in fact he is," said Maj. Neal Cuevas of North Miami Police. "They begin to take some action on their own and they get themselves seriously injured or killed."
"He shouldn't be robbing places," Seaks said. Her only weapon now is the video that she hopes will help lead cops to find the violent crook.
Anyone with information on the robbery is asked to call the North Miami Police Department at 305-891-8111.