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Praise for Colin
Police awards at JJB Soccerdome Supt Shaun Donellan (centre) with, from left, Steven Millar and Colin Faulkner, and Leisa Byers, William Hill's operations manager
A QUICK-THINKING St Helens man leapt to the rescue when he saw a man wielding a sledgehammer in a bookmakers.
Colin Faulkner, a passenger on a Wigan to St Helens bus service, apprehended the would-be thief with the help of driver Steven Millar.
And now the two have-a-go-heroes have been recognised for their extraordinary actions.
The heroic pair were honoured at the Wigan Police Awards ceremony for showing outstanding bravery.
Bus driver Steven, 37, was on route to St Helens when he noticed a man approaching the William Hill bookmakers on Ormskirk Road, Wigan, carrying the weapon.
Without thinking, he jumped from his bus and, with the help of Colin, attempted to stop him.
Colin, 40, said: “I wasn’t really thinking about my own safety, I was more concerned for the staff inside the shop. That’s why I confronted him and said he wasn’t going to get away.
“He paused for a moment and that’s when I grabbed the hammer. Then Steven stepped in and grappled him to the ground. It was just instinct really.”
Driver Steven, from Up Holland, said: “I called the police and pulled my bus up so that the CCTV could video him but by this time he had come back over the counter and was on his way out.
“I passed my phone to someone to keep talking to the police and went out. Myself and Colin didn’t speak, we just went out together.”
Selfless Colin added: “I had only just got on the bus and I saw that the driver had called the police. I thought he might need some help with something and then we saw the man. As I say, I was not thinking about my own safety, just those in the shop.”
Leisa Byers, William Hill’s north west operations manager, said: “We are just very grateful Steven and Colin stepped in to help as it was a traumatic incident for the two staff who were working at the time - although they were not injured. It is a good boost for the community that the person was stopped.”
A police spokesperson added: “As a direct result of their intervention, a man was arrested and charged. Without a thought for their own safety, the pair tried to stop the male who was hammering on the cashier’s glass with the sledgehammer and they detained him until police arrived.”
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Weather for St Helens
Thursday 20 June 2013
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