What started as a quick coffee-run quickly turned violent.
"I feel him trying to take my keys," said Ardalan Ashkanian. He was approached outside a Circle K near 19th and Campbell avenues by a man, asking for a cigarette.
Instead, the stranger tried snagging the lanyard around his neck.
Ashkanian says a second man showed himself and tried to make off with the keys to his Dodge Ram pickup truck.
"It wasn't the smart thing to do," he said, "but I just went after them."
That's when the men trying to steal his car, pulled out weapons, according to Phoenix police.
Both pointed guns at Ashkanian and pulled the trigger, but this truck owner says he felt a sense of confidence.
"The one thing that went through my head was that these guns are gonna jam," Ashkanian said.
They did. One man pulled the trigger at least ten times, according to Ashkanian, but never fired. The other tried four other times, and eventually let out one shot into the air.
Ashkanian acted quickly and struggled with one of the two assailants until he bolted from the scene. The other hopped in the truck and tried to make a run for it.
Ashkanian says he grabbed the only thing within reach to fight him off. "I grabbed the coffee that was at my hood, and I just threw it right at his face."
Phoenix police say both men got away with only two packs of cigarettes, but are still on the run tonight.
"They weren't expecting any type of resistance whatsoever," Ashkanian said. "Once there was resistance, they just really didn't know what to do."
Phoenix police say the two armed men are still on the run. Ashkanian hopes this reaction teaches them a lesson.
If you have any information regarding this case, you're asked to call Silent Witness at 480-WITNESS.
