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Market manager prevents robbery Two flee after a Cave Junction worker knocks the gun out of one man's hand By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune CAVE JUNCTION - Tom Pappas now knows the power of the press is strong enough when wielded properly to beat two gunman. The 56-year-old Pappas used eight bundled newspapers to fend off two armed robbers early Monday morning as he opened the town's Select Market, where Pappas is the produce manager. Pappas swung the Oregonian newspapers, which were bundled in a plastic bag, to knock a handgun out of the hands of a robber approaching him from behind while the other robber, armed with a rifle, stood nearby. The gunmen then fled, possibly in a beige car parked nearby. With no self-defense training, Pappas attributes his making quick work of the newspapers to another media form. "I've seen it on TV all the time," Pappas said. "You probably learn a lot without ever knowing it." Pappas was carrying the newspapers in his arms just before 6:30 a.m. as he approached the front door of the Select Market at 135 S. Redwood Highway, according to the Josephine County Sheriff's Department. A man dressed in camouflage then pointed a rifle at him, demanded entry into the store and told Pappas there was a second robber behind him, police said. Pappas said he turned to see another camo-clad man moving toward him with a pistol. Instinctively, he said, he swung the newspapers. "I just reacted," Pappas said. "I knew I didn't want to be in the store with two guys with guns." After he hit the gun, Pappas turned and ran across the highway, he said. When he looked back, he saw the gunmen running the other direction, Pappas said. Witnesses reported seeing a beige, older-model Mazda or BMW sedan drive off from behind the market and head north on the Redwood Highway. "We get a lot of shoplifters and you have to be careful with them," Pappas said. "But nothing like this." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.