A mouthy customer who claimed he could handle bear mace like it was breakfast cereal got a painful reality check inside a Rock Island tobacco store Thursday afternoon.
Surveillance footage from Black Hawk Tobacco on 18th Avenue captures the wild confrontation that left the big, bearded man in a backward cap and graphic tee on a stretcher.
The trouble started when the customer walked in and immediately got aggressive with a young employee behind the counter. He demanded to know “where were you,” apparently hunting for a former worker, and warned, “Better not do that shit.”
When the clerk reached for a canister of bear mace, the would-be tough guy sneered the now-infamous line: “I eat that sh^t for breakfast.”
He didn’t get to finish his meal.
The man tried to snatch the employee’s phone anyway and took the first direct hit. He then grabbed a box, possibly to swing it or use as a shield, and ate a second dose of the powerful spray.
The video shows the customer initially trying to play it cool, but the effects quickly caught up with him. By the time cops and medics arrived, he was being loaded onto a stretcher outside the store by Rock Island Fire Department personnel.
Police were called to the scene around 3:30 p.m. Thursday. Investigators are still piecing together exactly what happened and whether charges will be filed.
The clip, posted by crime-focused accounts and already racking up hundreds of thousands of views, has internet users howling at the failed tough-guy routine.“He really thought he was built different,” one viewer joked.
Others zeroed in on the dramatic aftermath and the responding officers.
Rock Island police have not yet released the man’s name or condition, but one thing is clear: his breakfast of champions turned into a very spicy regret.
