Harry Bains Hero Bar Owner in NY Bombings

Harry Bains

Harry Bains is the bar owner in Linden, NJ, who –recognized bomber suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami, thus helping police to ultimately capture him.

49-year-old Harry Bains stepped in as he recognized Rahami from the news and called the police! The bar owner is being hailed as a hero.

Many have shared the news in social media and have called Bains a hero for following the NYC slogan “see something, say something.”

As authorities searched for 28-year-old Rahami –who was hiding in plain sight outside a dank New Jersey pub –Bains was the first person to alert police about his presence in Linden, NJ.

Bains is the owner of Merdie’s Tavern. He couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw Rahami sleeping in the vestibule of his bar. He thought to himself, could this be the guy I’ve been watching all morning in the news.

Speaking to news outlets, Bains said he followed his ‘gut feeling’ and thought something didn’t look right with ‘this guy.’ He revealed he didn’t told police he thought it was the suspect, however he still made the call about a guy sleeping on his bar.

But Bains keeps his modesty, when a reporter told him he helped captured the ‘most wanted in America’  he responded:

Usually it has happened a couple times, I go and confront people, and I start yelling at them, what the hell you guys are doing in front of my bar? But today, I don’t know what happened. I just spoke to him nicely and it was my gut reaction. Something told me ‘You go call the police.’

And Bains was being honest. It is not the first time he’s had to face a ‘bad guy.’

In 2013, he was on the news again for thwarting a robbery by throwing kitchen grease on the suspect.

At the time, Bains said he was working just after 2 p.m. when a man in a blue windbreaker jacket walked in at Cos’s Corner Deli and pointed a gun at his face.

Bains reaction was grab a pan filled with oil — typically kept at 400 degrees. The gunman drops the register and taked off.

The fearless Bains, who is a father of three, said “I had no choice. Whatever I could do that point of time, I just did it.”

Rahami has been charged with five counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer. He was also charged with second-degree unlawful possession of a weapon and second-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.