Foiled robbery prompts warning

COEUR D’ALENE – Kootenai County sheriff’s officials are warning residents against taking the law into their own hands after a man successfully foiled a robbery at a coffee stand.

Randy Naccarato, 44, helped prevent a robbery last week at Lean Bean Latte, but police say he may have been creating an unnecessary risk.

Naccarato said he saw a man put on a ski mask and go into the coffee stand.

Naccarato, a former amateur boxer, started pummeling the man and, with the help of two other men, held him down until police arrived.

The unarmed man they tackled, Terry Taylor, was charged with robbery, the Coeur d’Alene Press reported Sunday. Taylor was being held in the Kootenai County Jail on $250,000 bail, an officer at the jail said Sunday.

Kootenai County Sheriff Rocky Watson advises people to use caution when attempting to stop a crime.

“The whole scenario changes when someone enters your home and threatens your loved ones, but there’s nothing in the smoke shop worth your life,” Watson said. “You don’t know what the other guy has got. You don’t know his skill level with whatever weapon he might be carrying.”

In another Kootenai County case on Dec. 26, a clerk at a smoke shop in Stateline shot and killed a man who tried to rob the store using an empty pellet gun. Joseph Kalani Hatchie, 47, was shot 10 times by the clerk with a .40-caliber semiautomatic. Prosecutors are considering whether deadly force was necessary.

Under Idaho law, people can make citizen’s arrests. But Watson said the law allows that only in misdemeanor cases and in the presence of a law enforcement officer. Citizens are not permitted to detain people suspected of wrongdoing.

“They could be facing assault or kidnapping charges if they do,” Watson said.

Citizens often can be more useful as witnesses to crime, Watson said. He recalled an incident when two off-duty officers helped foil a bar robbery without putting themselves or anyone else at risk.

“They were the first two on the floor,” Watson said. “They were real good witnesses. They got very detailed descriptions, which eventually led to the guy’s arrest.”