When 20 year old Jerome Taylor loudly burst into the Northern Indian restaurant in New London, Connecticut wearing a mask and waving a weapon around, he probably didn’t expect the restaurant’s cooks to respond by threatening him with huge kitchen knives. Nor did the chefs likely expect Taylor to immediately begin apologizing because his “gun” was in fact a completely harmless iPhone.

Sadly, Taylor’s reason for the attempted robbery was that he needed money for his child – most likely for Christmas presents. The restaurant employees felt so bad for him, in fact, that they asked police not to press charges. The police couldn’t let the crime slide, however, and booked Taylor on charges of attempted robbery and interfering with an officer.