 |
| Coolopolis interns created this image |
Dinh Tri Nguyen would be about 61 now.
Dinh Tri Nguyen, then 27, was cashing his $355 monthly welfare cheque at Park and Sherbrooke on July 30, 1981 when in walked an escaped convict named Roger Poirier (he didn't tell them his name right away, they had to work to figure that out).Poirier, 43, was eight months on the lam after fleeing a murder sentence at the Leclerc Institute.
He burst in brandishing a shotgun and a bomb and ordered everybody to the floor.
Nguyen complied and attempted to analyze the robber's behaviour by testing how he'd respond to a request to get a sip of water.
He was given permission. Nguyen then asked the robber Poirier if he could fetch his guitar.
Poirier said yeah sure whatever.
And then for act three Nguyen - who by now had decided that the bomb wasn't real - got up without permission, as if doing some other useless task and instead leaped on the robber.
Poirier overpowered the smaller Nguyen and shot him twice.
Meanwhile a bunch of other hostages leaped in and intervened, slamming Poirier with staplers and other office items.
Nguyen, even after being shot, persuaded them to stop wailing away at the armed man.
Being shot twice didn't prevent Nguyen from describing the ordeal in great detail to a reporter, while also pleading with someone to give him a job, which ultimately led to employment in a north end clothing manufacturer.
The bankers' association gave Nguyen $5,000 as a reward.
When he went to the bank to pick up his reward cheque, Nguyen missed another bank robbery, which occurred five minutes earlier. Yep, he missed his chance at double glory.
Ngueyn denied that he was a hero and called himself "a chicken."**If anybody knows what became of Dinh Tri Nguyen please let us know so we could bestow upon him Coolopolis' highest honour. *For those who keep asking the receptionist at Coolopolis Towers to meet Chimples: "he's not here." For quite some time Chimples has been working alone in a small ship in international waters due to questions about the legality of keeping a simian who has been implanted with an super intelligence chip in his brain. He's ok with it.
**There appears to be no truth to the recently-generated rumour that the character named Sticks in the 1991 film classic Out for Justice was based on Nguyen's feats.