The search is on for two armed men who robbed a 15-year-old boy at gunpoint Tuesday night in Orange County for Nike basketball shoes, police said.
The teenager was walking home from the Smith Recreation Center, located on Bruton Boulevard in Orlando, when the two men attacked him.
The shoes in question are Nike Air Zoom Flight "The Glove." They cost about $140.
"He put the gun to my head and he was, like, 'I like your shoes, can I get them?'" the teenager said. "When he asked me for them, I took my shoes off and I gave them to him."
In agreement with the victim’s mother, News 13 will not release the victim's identity.
The teenager was still nervous to talk about what happened to him.
"Just being thankful that I'm still here," he said.
The victim's mother, Joy Cooper, added: "The only thing that's running through my mind is what if this gun would have went off? No one could explain to me how my son got killed for a pair of shoes."
According to investigators, one suspect was wearing a white sky mask. The other suspect was wearing a monkey mask. The victim described it as a Halloween-style mask.
The suspects were scared off when a stranger riding a bike chased them away, police said.
"I feel like that was an angel because my son said he never seen him before riding around in Richmond Heights," Cooper said of the bicyclist who scared off the suspects.
The teenager got his sneakers back because the suspects dropped them when the bicyclist chased them, police said.
The stranger picked the shoes up and returned them to the teen as he was running home in his socks.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call Crimeline at 800-423-TIPS (8477).