A jewelry store at 56th Street and Second Avenue was the scene of an attempted robbery yesterday during the lunch hour. Two men tried to rob Fossner Timepieces J & P, threatening owner Peter Fossner and pistol whipping another employee, but passers-by flagged down a police cruiser on the street. The robbers used the four employees as hostages, shoving them outside before they ran to their getaway truck, and then shot at the police who returned fire. The robbers got away, dumping the truck in the Lower East Side, but the police arrested Richard Lawlor, who has been involved in a number of robberies - the truck's registration matched his address. The NY Times says that Fossner's had been robbed in the past two weeks and police are not sure if the robberies are related.

Image from NY1