Joe Scola, owner of Scola's Place, the new restaurant on Pleasant Street, holds the ham he used to defend himself against a man who was trying to steal food from his freezer. Scola said he heard the door close to the basement where the freezer is and chased the man carrying an armful of food down Liberty Street. When he confronted the man and took back the ham, the thief raised a 5-pound frozen stick of prosciutto to hit him, and Scola struck the man in the face with the ham, knocking him over. Mike Dean / Staff photo
