Montreal jewellers fend off armed attackers with acid and chairs

Would-be jewel thieves Richardson François and Jerry Theodore lost big January 22, 2013, when the pair walked into a jewelry store in Park Extension hoping to rob it. Store owner Vijay Verma, and his relatives would fight back even though François was armed with a pistol and Theodore was carrying a machete. During the melee that ensued, after François pulled out the pistol, one of Verma’s relatives picked up containers of nitric acid — commonly used to clean jewelry — and tossed it in François and Theodore’s faces. The acid left lifelong scars on their faces. François lost 50 per cent of the vision in one eye.