Oceanside

Two men who tried to hold up an Oceanside liquor store with a hatchet were scared off Sunday night when the clerk produced a handgun and fired at them.

An Oceanside police spokesman said the clerk was talking to a customer when two men entered Oceanside Liquor on Oceanside Boulevard. One man held a hatchet in his right hand while the other grabbed the cash register and ran out the door.

They saw the clerk aim the gun at them, and the first man dropped the cash register and ran away. The other thief got into a car and drove off as the clerk fired once at him. Police said they did not know whether the car was hit by the bullet. The car was described as a yellow 1965 Corvair that had been stolen from an Oceanside bowling alley earlier in the day. The spokesman said there was no loss other than damage to the cash register.