BROCKTON, Mass. (WHDH)-- A Brockton gas station clerk used a bat to chase a knife-wielding suspect away from his store early Sunday.

“Thank God no, nothing happened. He just run when he saw the baseball bat,” said Heradio Gonzales, a Shell station clerk.

Gonzales said his co-worker, the overnight clerk, grabbed a bat hidden behind the counter and chased the suspect right out the door during the attempted heist. Gonzales has been robbed before and said the bat is “our friend.”

Gonzales applauded his co-worker’s efforts, but said he jeopardized his own safety by chasing the suspect. If the suspect hadn’t been acting alone, the overnight clerk could have found himself in a potentially dangerous situation.

Security cameras caught the red-hooded suspect running off, possibly to an already running getaway car at an adjacent Laundromat.

Brockton police patrol the area often and they're examining the surveillance video in hopes it will lead to a suspect.