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When a young pickpocket saw an old man walking down the street in a suburban Detroit neighborhood, he thought he had spotted an easy victim. However, instead of a wallet full of cash, the would-be thief nearly ended up with an aluminum cane up side his head, WDIV 4 Detroit reports.

Chet Dunham, 72, had just left a Grosse Pointe Farms restaurant when 23- year-old Jeffery Jones approached him.

“I felt him in my pocket,” Dunham said. “I turned to see, well I see him, and there’s nobody gonna have their hand in my pocket without me reacting. That’s how fast it was, just seconds.”

But took just as fast for Dunham, an Army vet, to swing his cane in self-defense. A surveillance captured the entire exchange. Jones seem surprised when the elderly man fought back and told him that he was just messing around. After getting a good ID on the failed pickpocket, Dunham walked into a Bank of America branch and told a staff member what had just gone down; the bank called the cops and they arrested Jones soon after.

“(Jones) observed Mr. Dunham, he thought he was going to be an easy target but obviously he wasn’t,” said Grosse Point Farms police Det. Bryan Ford.

The cops say Jones was standing around for 20 minutes in the area where the attempted robbery took place. Dunham, with his bad back, weak knees and torn rotator cuffs, proved to be too formidable a target for Jones.

For the fruits of his criminal labor, Jones was charged with attempted larceny from a person — a 5-year felony.

He is behind bars on a $5,000 bond.

 Watch video of the incident below:

72-Year-Old Man Fights Off Would-Be Thief With His Cane  was originally published on newsone.com

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