Dellona Township, Michigan

From the Oshkosh Northwestern of September 7, 2007

Bar owner chases down .44 Magnum-toting robber

Herb Ott doesn’t like to be robbed. In fact, he takes it pretty darn personally.

On Thursday around noon, a man in a camouflage mask and clothing and carrying a .44 Magnum handgun and a bag walked into Ott’s bar, Poor Nate’s Tavern, in the township of Dellona about 50 miles northwest of Madison.

The bartender, who declined to give her name, said the robber never pointed the gun at her, but went straight to the money drawer. She began screaming for Ott, who was upstairs doing the bar’s books, as the robber headed out the back door with nearly $5,000 in his bag.

The 68-year-old Ott came charging downstairs and burst out the back door after the robber, shouting at him to stop.

"I told him, ’Give me my frickin’ money back,"’ Ott said.

Ott followed the robber through the countryside behind the bar, careful to keep his distance. The robber ducked from tree to tree, looking back at him from time to time, Ott said.

He ran up a hill toward some rental cottages before Ott found him trying to hide behind a shed.

Ott began to swear at the robber - "I used the Lord’s name in vain. I think he was scared" - and the robber handed the money bag and loaded gun over to him.

"I says, ’Why did you do it?’ He said, ’I’m sorry, but I’m broke,"’ Ott said.

Ott walked the robber back to the bar and made him sit at a table until Sauk County Sheriff’s deputies arrived.

Ott said he recognized the 31-year-old robber once he had the mask off him. He had come into the bar in the past to cash checks, Ott said, which explains how the robber knew where the money was.

The man offered no explanation for the robbery or his decision to surrender, Ott said.

"He just said he was sorry after I found out who he was," Ott said.

Ott has owned Poor Nate’s Place, on State Highway 23 between Reedsburg and Wisconsin Dells, for more than 30 years. He thinks he’s been robbed at least twice before. The police always have recovered his money, he said, but this time he took matters into his own hands.

"I wasn’t going to let him just walk away with a bag of money," Ott said. "Why would a guy just let him walk away?"

Sauk County Chief Deputy Chip Meister said chasing down a man who has a .44 Magnum may not have been the wisest move, but it worked.

"Obviously, it wasn’t the safest action. However, because of his efforts the suspect was apprehended," Meister said.

Ott said he didn’t have a plan when he went out the back door.

"I just wanted to follow him and, I guess, see where he went to and see if he got in a car and get a license number or whatever. I just stayed my distance and yelled at him and finally he gave up. He just handed me the gun and the money and that was it."

Ott said he expected the robber to turn and open fire. But he knew what he would have done:

"I figured if he’s going to shoot, I’m going to duck."