Video shows Toronto steakhouse owner fighting off mugger ‘hockey style’

CTV Toronto: Owner thwarts mugging Scott Lightfoot has the story of how a local restaurant owner fought off a mugger attempting to steal cash he was transporting.

A Toronto steakhouse owner fought off a suspected mugger on Monday and then uploaded surveillance camera footage of the incident, which is now spreading online.

Arron Barberian owns Barberian’s Steak House and a sandwich shop called TLP (short for “three little pigs”), both on Elm St., near the Toronto Eaton Centre.

He was carrying a till full of cash from the steakhouse to the sandwich shop in broad daylight on Monday morning when the apparent robbery attempt occurred.

Barberian says the man did not appear to have a weapon. “I didn’t like being mugged or assaulted and just took matters into my own hands.”

“I grabbed him basically by the back of his jersey and kind of hockey-fight style dragged him around and rag-dolled him, and threw him down a couple times.”

He says he was trying to hold onto the guy until police could arrest him.

The scuffle can be seen from two different angles in two videos posted to YouTube with the titles ‘Smack Down’ and ‘Smack Down 2.’

Banknotes from the till can be seen spilling out onto the ground. As Barberian and a staff member chase the man, the wind sends the money flying down the street.

A woman in a fur hat collected some of the notes and returned them, Barberian says.

However, another woman, wearing a black jacket and black pants, can be seen in one of the videos stopping traffic to pick up his cellphone, which he dropped in the melee.

Barberian was not injured, but he did not get his cellphone back.

Police said Tuesday that they are looking for a man aged 30 to 40 with short black hair and a medium build, wearing a dark shirt, jeans and runners.

No arrests have been made.