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Wounded Store Clerk, Owner Thought Robbery Was Joke

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 29, 2008

Apparently some customers at Joy Foodsmart occasionally play an odd prank. Once they walk through the door, they pretend they are robbing the business by exclaiming, "Give me the money."

That's what virtually everyone thought was occurring Dec. 22 when three men wearing bandannas walked into the store at 1005 49th St. S. about 8:35 p.m.

Tien Tran, a clerk who was behind the counter, said he thought the three were joking.

Thanh Hoang, the owner of the business, was standing at the door and later told Tran that's what he was thinking, too.

Eric Hoang, 11, one of Hoang's sons, was behind the counter with his two younger brothers. He told The Tampa Tribune this afternoon he thought the men were kidding.

"They come in. They yell, 'Give us the money.' We thought it was fake," Eric said.

Tran, 25, agreed. He said that before the men made their demands, they appeared to be laughing and joking with one another. "We thought they were our regular customers playing a trick on us, like a joke," Tran said.

It was no laughing matter.

After Thanh Hoang told the three to stop joking around, one of them shot him in the shoulder, Eric said.

Hoang, 43, pushed himself out the door, trying to summon help.

Tran, meanwhile, tried to shield Eric and the boy's two brothers, ages 8 and 10. "I told the boys to get back behind me," Tran said. "I told them to lay down."

He said he then gave the men all the money in the cash register but that he was shot anyway before they left. A single bullet hit Tran in the left side of the chest and came close to his spine, he said during a telephone interview this afternoon from his hospital bed.

"At first I thought the guy hit me hard. I couldn't breathe," Tran said. He said he realized he had been shot when he could feel his body but couldn't move. He slumped to the floor, his head resting on a shelf. He said that when Hoang came back into the store, he told everyone to call 911.

Eric made the call; his 8-year-old brother pushed a panic button.

Thanh Hoang is recuperating at home, his son said.

Tran was in critical condition but now expects to be released in four to five days. No arrests have been made.

"It was really scary, and I'll never forget it," Eric said.

The three Hoang boys are so close to Tran that they call him uncle, though he is not a relative, Eric said.

Tran has taken them to Celebration Station and to St. Petersburg College, where Tran is studying to become an architect. The Hoang and Tran families met at the Vietnamese Mission Catholic Church in Largo, Tran said.

When Tran agreed to be interviewed by telephone, the boys were in his hospital room, visiting.

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at spthompson@tampatrib.com or (727) 451-2336.

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