Louisville residents Nicole and Chase McKeown were having a post-Valentine’s Day date night on Saturday, February 15.
They were sitting in a booth towards the back of a Raising Cane’s fast food restaurant at the Mid City Mall in Louisville, Kentucky. As they were eating their meal around 10pm, 30-year-old Justin Carter entered the restaurant wearing what looked to be a surgical mask, pointed a gun at the employee behind the cash register, and demanded money.
This man chose the wrong restaurant to rob because the McKeowns both work for the Elizabethtown Police Department where Nicole is an officer and Chase is a detective.
From the back of the restaurant, Nicole and Chase both noticed what was going on. Chase drew his weapon and told his wife to call 911, but Nicole said, “No — I’m gonna help my husband!”
The husband and wife duo – who were married six months ago – rushed to confront Carter, who dropped his weapon and ran out the door. Nicole and Chase followed him outside and held him at gunpoint a couple blocks away until the Louisville Metro Police Department arrived to arrest him.
According to ABC 10News, the gun Carter brandished was a stolen weapon from the Jeffersontown police. WDRB reports that he has “pleaded not guilty to robbery, receipt of stolen property and being a felon in possession of a gun.”
An informal news conference was held on Tuesday (Feb 18) to recognize Nicole and Chase, who don’t consider themselves heroes.
“We are police officers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on or off duty,” Chase said.
Watch the surveillance footage from the robbery below.