What a great story sent in from reader Dan from Iowa:

At least six people at a Des Moines supermarket helped a Des Moines police officer who was in danger of losing his gun to a suspected shoplifter Wednesday night.

The manager of the Dahl’s store at 4343 Merle Hay Road, several shoppers and even a motorist driving by rushed to help Officer Jeffrey Cronin, who was working off-duty, in uniform, at the store.

It took all of them to subdue Curtis Leroy Woods, 37, who was suspected of stealing a bottle of liquor from the store. Cronin said he and Woods were struggling on the ground outside the store’s entrance when “several people jumped in to help, and I was grateful for every one of them.”

Store manager Mac McBride put Woods in a headlock and ended up putting handcuffs on him. Brad Bathey, Weston Cozad, Dave Casady and Aaron Brauch jumped in to drag Woods off Cronin. Steven Paca was driving by the store and leaped out of his truck to help.

They ended up subduing this guy, albeit with a few scratches since apparently the suspect was bleeding profusely and everyone had blood on them when it was all over.  Poor fellow.

If it were not for those citizens who saw a person in need and jumped in to help this story could of been quite different.