UPPER WEST SIDE — As he does most mornings, Moawd Ramzy Asaad walked to the side of Sam's Halal food trailer on Columbus Avenue Friday and opened the propane tank to fuel the grill.
Asaad, 32, then went to the rear door of the cart parked on 97th Street and spotted a man inside grabbing cash from the top of the counter. He quickly tried to shut the door and trap the thief inside, but the man pushed it open and attacked the worker.
“I grabbed him by his shirt and arm,” Asaad told DNAinfo New York. “He hit me three times in the head and in the face. “
The vendor thought it best to avoid fighting the intruder.
“What if he had a gun? What if he had a knife?”
Asaad then shouted at him, “Why are you stealing my money?”
The would-be thief tossed the cash on the floor of the trailer and fled.
Asaad, a Queens resident, has worked as a food vendor at the corner for about two years, and said this was the first time someone has tried to rob him.
He left his trailer unmanned for a couple of hours to accompany police officers who wanted to show him photos of possible suspects.
“I couldn’t remember his face."
Asaad said he was not seriously injured and there were no visible bruises on his face or head.
There was no immediate information on a suspect, police sources said.
