Former major league pitcher Francisco Cordero had a chain ripped from his neck during a gunpoint robbery in the Dominican Republic.
Surveillance video showed Cordero, 49, playing dominoes with friends and family outside his brother’s grocery store in Santo Domingo on Friday night when two suspects rode up on a motorcycle.
One of the assailants, who was holding a handgun, walked toward Cordero and reached for his neck as the three-time All-Star put his hands in the air.
The suspect then ripped a gold chain from Cordero’s neck before tripping over a chair while trying to escape. The gunman rose to his feet quickly after the fall and fled with his accomplice.
Cordero, 49, told the Dominican news outlet N Digital that the robbery may have been planned.
‘It doesn’t seem like it was a random robbery because the assailant jumped off the motorcycle, grabbed the gun and went straight to me, took off my chain and left,’ he said.
‘He didn’t take the money I had in my pockets, nor my cell phone, nor did he address anyone else.’
Cordero said that the situation didn’t escalate because he and his group didn’t confront the suspects.
The pitcher earned 329 saves during 14 seasons with the Detroit Tigers, Texas Rangers, Milwaukee Brewers, Cincinnati Reds, Toronto Blue Jays and Houston Astros.
He represented the Rangers in his first All-Star game in 2004, when saved a career-high 49 games.
Cordero returned to the mid-summer classic in 2007 as a member of the Brewers and represented the Reds in 2009.
