We’ve heard of people wolfing down the wine just a little too quickly at an opening, but this is on another level. DNAinfo reports that on January 11, a man entered the Salmagundi Club, a nonprofit art space (since 1871) in Greenwich Village. Once inside, he managed to unlock a liquor cabinet using a screwdriver and liberate a $30 bottle of Ketel One vodka, a $43 bottle of Grey Goose vodka, and a $67 bottle of Rémy Martin.

But the thief got more than he bargained for in front desk attendant Richard Cabral, a 21-year-old Brooklyn College student who risked life and limb to reacquire the $140 worth of alcohol.

After checking the security tapes to confirm that the man was in fact a thief, Cabral pursued him on a wild chase spanning several blocks, relaying directions to a 911 dispatcher the whole way. Eventually, the police caught up with the thief at Christopher Street and Greenwich Avenue.

The thief tried to get into several cabs along the way, which Cabral actually jumped in front of. One of the cabs accidentally rolled over his foot, to which he remarked: “I’ve actually had worse injuries in martial arts…but it was actually kind of annoying to have a car on my foot.” We can only imagine.

Cabral went on to say that he would have reacted similarly in a number of situations, and that upon learning property had been taken, “I just instinctively jumped out the door.”

The gallery manager, while impressed with his employee’s bravery, wanted to make it known that “we really, really do not encourage our employees to chase down robbers.”

But clearly, Cabral is not the average gallery guy. After all, can you picture any of our lethargic gallery girls pulling out a stop like this? (See Gallery Girls: We Serialize Mary Blakemore’s Beloved Comic).

We’d love to know what this fearless defender of company property would have done if it had been actual art taken.

Note to thieves: don’t mess with the Salmagundi Club. Much better to stick with, say, an art fair (see Picasso Stolen from Art Fair in Miami).