Places like Denny’s are attractive for people not only because of their wide offer of delicious meals but because you can have your favorite food any time of the day or the night. They offer 24/7 service and enjoying an omelette or a juicy hamburger won’t really cost you a lot.
One particular man, however, decided to visit the place not for the nice food, but for the cash. Johnathan Franklin’s life was a total mess as he had recently got out of prison and was on parole for committing a murder at the time of the attempted robbery of North Highlands Denny’s.
This 50-year-old felon entered the place carrying a gun and threatened the woman behind the counter asking her to give him the money.
Anyone involved in a situation like this would likely stay silent until the cops arrive or until the robber gets what they want and dash off. But not Douglas Tallman who was having breakfast with his family at the time of the incident. He knew he needed to act and later told KTXL:
“My heart dropped. I felt if I didn’t do something, something bad was going to happen.”
“You can just tell by the look on his face he was getting madder and madder, and she was panicking because she couldn’t open it. He was getting mad and I feel he would have shot her if she couldn’t get it open in time. I thought he was going to shoot her.”
“I grabbed him and I picked him up and slammed him on the ground,” he said. “And we just started going at it and the gun was literally … I know had to have been no more than 8 inches away.”
“There was a lot of people in there and I felt if anything was going to happen I’d rather it happen to me than any of them.”
At that moment, this brave man’s son stepped in and tried to help his father getting Franklin down.
“I’m not going to let him fight somebody by himself,” he told KTXL.
Not being able to fight with two people all at once, Franklin fired a shot that hit the 16-year-old’s foot and left the place. He then carjacked a vehicle and collided with a cop’s car.
Tallman says his son is going to be just fine and he is glad no one else got hurt. As for Franklin, he got arrested and taken back to jail. He robbed another place the previous week.
“I’m very proud of him,” Tallman’s wife, Monica, said. “That was somebody’s daughter, somebody’s sister. I’m very grateful that he did what he did.”
“I don’t feel like I’m a hero,” Tallman protested. “I just kind of went on what I thought was right and that was my instinct and my heart.”