A Dundee great-grandmother has revealed how she fought a thief in a hammer battle to protect her sick brother’s business.
Jean McGill, 70, was working in Forbes Newsagents on Clepington Road to help her eldest brother when hammer-wielding 26-year-old Brian Millar tried to rob the shop for drugs money.
He repeatedly tried to hit Mrs McGill as the pensioner tried to protect the shop till during the terrifying March 10 crime.
She eventually grabbed her own hammer from behind the counter and chased him off, throwing the tool after him as he fled with cash.
Armed robbery
She said: “It was about ten to five in the morning and a young man came in with a mask and his hoodie and everything up.
“He had a hammer.
“He said to give him the money.
“I sort of stalled because I wasn’t sure what I was going to do.
“He said again, ‘Give me the money’.
“I opened the till and I let him take the money.
“As I did that, I realised I’d been banging in nails, I had a hammer.
“I tried to hit him with my hammer.”
She added: “I was rather angry and I threw the hammer, although it missed him.
“I think I was more shocked than anything because my brother has been robbed in here before.”
‘I was so angry’
After Millar fled the scene with a handful of notes, Mrs McGill phoned her niece and the police, who arrived within minutes.
Millar was found at his home a few hours later with £115 of the stolen £200, as well as two hammers.
Mrs McGill has been covering for her brother’s absence since November but is now scared to be in the shop on her own.
“I’m not into violence but I was so angry.
“My brother has worked so hard and I’m working so hard to try and keep the shop going for him at the moment.”
She said: “I’m only here because he’s off ill and there’s nobody else to run the shop.
“He took Covid and then he was very ill so I came to look after the shop.
“He was off for a long time – maybe 19 or 20 weeks.
“This time he’s been off since the beginning of November.”
Previous robbery
In December 2021, 80-year-old Dave Forbes, grappled with a thug, who stole £1000 of scratchcards.
The thief claimed he was owed cash because he didn’t get his “buroo money”.
Mrs Forbes, who retired from Asda in Kirkton six years ago after 16 years of service, said: “I didn’t tackle mine, I just threw a hammer at him.
“We definitely don’t keep hammers under the counter.
“Sometimes I think I should but I don’t.”
Since the incident, Mrs McGill relies on taxis and lifts to get to the shop, rather than walking.
The newsagents opens at 4.30am so she gets on a friend to stay with her until it gets light and she feels safe.
She previously worked alongside her husband, John, who she met when they both worked at Baxter’s Mill.
She had served in the Women’s Royal Naval Service.
She has nine siblings, two children, six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Her husband has suffered two heart attacks.
She said: “It’s been a traumatic time.”
Prison warning for robber
Crack addict Millar, from Dundee, admitted in court to repeatedly trying to strike McGill with a hammer and stealing £200.
Sheriff Martin-Brown deferred sentence for the preparation of background reports and said: “Custody is still an option, given the nature of the offence.”
She said of Mrs McGill: “She certainly gave as good as she got.”
