Brave shop staff tackled a hammer wielding raider and took him to the ground when he tried to rob them.
Dale Harvey went into a Costcutter and Post Office store wearing a hat, face mask and with surgical gloves taped to his wrists.
A court heard he pulled out a claw hammer in a threatening manner and started demanding cash.
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But the shopkeeper managed to pull him to the floor and he and a female shop worker disarmed him and held him down until police arrived, with the woman suffering an injury from the hammer in the struggle.
Now Harvey, who has no previous convictions and acted out of desperation for drugs money, has been jailed at Newcastle Crown Court.
It was around 9.15am on December 1 last year that Harvey went into the shop in Silksworth, Sunderland, while staff and customers were present.
While holding the hammer, he said a number of times "Give me your money".
He then tried to force open a perspex door, damaging it in the process and shouted "Just give me the f****** money".
The shop owner took hold of him and turned him away from the till and managed to throw him to the floor and shouted for a member of staff to grab the hammer.
She was caught on the chin with it as he swung it around and at one point the claw part of the hammer hooked around her ankle.
The woman managed to take hold of the hammer and pressed an alarm, which filled the shop with dry ice, and called police.
She said in a victim impact statement she was "shocked and upset" and added: "I don't deserve to be harmed and terrorised in this way."
The shop owner said: "I don't expect to come to work and be threatened with weapons, nor do I expect my staff to be threatened."
When interviewed by police, Harvey said he had fallen on hard times and was desperate and apologised for the upset he had caused.
The 31-year-old, of General Graham Street, Sunderland, pleaded guilty to attempted robbery and possessing an offensive weapon and was jailed for two years.
Penny Hall, defending, said: "He was quite easily overpowered and put to the floor.
"He can't quite believe he acted as he did. He is embarrassed and ashamed and fully acknowledges the effect his actions that day would have had on the people in the shop.
"There's a history of mental heal difficulties and he has bi-polar disorder."
