Security video shows customers paying for groceries when a robber dressed like a ninja, stormed in, demanding money.
"He puts out the mask, he was pleading to give him the money, only, please give me the money. I told him sorry I have no money here," store owner Ahmad Abdulrahman said.
The robber was in black from head-to-toe and armed with an expandable metal baton.
He wasn't taking no for an answer.
"I'm here like for a couple of years, I'm never expecting someone to be so aggressive," Abdulrahman said.
Abdulrahman, a Syrian refugee, is 35 years old, and soft-spoken but hard nosed.
He grabbed a 2 by 4 and fought back, his arms covered with bruises.
He defended the small market he bought a year ago, using hand to hand combat for his livelihood, his wife and their two young children.
"Unfortunately some people are so weak, they think it's so easy to walk in and take your money, but not me," he said.
He chased the would-be ninja robber out of the store and down the street. Abdulrahman is a survivor of the Syrian civil war who has seen far worse, and is grateful for every day in the usa.
Ahmad abdulrahman/ grocery store owner
"You have to be tough to survive," he said. "You have to act tough, and thanks to God, I'm doing well, I open my store, I close it, I do like 17 hours a day, 7 days a week."
So far no arrest has been made, but police say that surveillance video has given them a few leads.
