The 'Ten Cents' Holdup: A Seattle Storekeeper Calls the Robbers' Bluff
Two armed men tried to rob J. B. Johnson's Front Street store, but Johnson told them the till was empty and bolted for the back door as a shot rang out.
Two would-be highwaymen attempted to hold up J. B. Johnson in his store at 506 Front Street last night about 8 o'clock. The men came into the store with pistols and slouch hats drawn down over their eyes. Robber No. 1 told Johnson, the proprietor, and two other men in the store to throw up their hands. Johnson replied: "What's the matter with you? There ain't 10 cents in the crowd."
"Make them put up their hands," yelled robber No. 2 from the door. "This is no fake."
At this juncture Johnson made a dash for the door at the back of the store, and robber No. 1 fired a shot at him. The men then walked out of the front door. After going toward the water front a short distance they turned south. They were working on the cars all night.
“"What's the matter with you? There ain't 10 cents in the crowd."”
Small-store holdups still make local news, and Johnson's deadpan line—'there ain't 10 cents in the crowd'—turns a violent moment into dark comedy. The robbers' slouch hats and escape toward the waterfront place the scene in a downtown Seattle still tied to its working docks.
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