STOCKTON, Calif. — When Louis Benton stopped for gas at a downtown Stockton 7-Eleven on his way home early Saturday morning, he never thought the routine trip would go viral.
While waiting in line to buy a drink, Benton noticed a masked man walk into the store, grab a trash can and head for the area behind the cash registers. With his phone already in hand, Benton started recording.
In the video, now viewed millions of times, the man rummages through shelves of tobacco products, tossing items into the trash can before being grabbed by a 7-Eleven employee and taken to the ground.
Once on the ground, a second store employee grabs a wooden pole and begins hitting the suspected thief.
"I was shocked, so that's why I really didn't say anything in the video," said Benton. "I really just posted it on my (Instagram) stories and then from there someone took it off my stories and it just went viral."
Warning: This video may be disturbing to some viewers.
At first he saw the employee retaliation as courageous, but after the suspected thief was hit nearly two dozen times, he stepped in. He grabbed the man and walked him out the front doors.
"It came to a point where it got a little excessive so I was kind of like, 'Yo, you know, we got to chill, we got to relax,'" said Benton. "Those two workers who protected their store, they did a courageous act. I believe that if I wasn't there that guy would probably be more hurt than he was."
Just across the street from the front doors? The Stockton Police Department's headquarters.
A spokesperson for the department declined an interview Thursday, but said they were aware of the video and are investigating the robbery.
7-Eleven did not respond to a request for comment.
Benton says he will continue to get gas from there, but he hopes more security measures can be put in place and people will behave better.
"The police station is right across the street. Why is there no presence over there?" said Benton. "The community needs to take care of each other and we need to make sure that we are morally doing the right things. We've got to change."
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