HUNTINGTON BEACH – Scott Fahey was paying a tip for his venti hot chocolate at a walk-up Starbucks when a man on a bicycle appeared and grabbed the tip container from his hand.

The retired police officer’s instincts kicked in, and he refused to release the container – which held three $1 bills and change.

The bicyclist punched Fahey repeatedly, then bashed him in the head with a metal sign weighing about 40 pounds.

“It was like getting hit by a baseball bat,” a dazed and shaken Fahey, 55, said Sunday afternoon at his home after a night in the hospital, where he was treated for head and neck injuries. “This all happened so fast. It knocked me back. It stunned me.”

That’s when Fahey reached for the holster holding his Glock 26.

“You don’t want to do that. I will shoot you,” the ex-cop warned. The man jumped back on his bike and rode off.

The Saturday night incident at Brookhurst and Adams Avenue sparked a debate on the Huntington Beach Police Department’s Facebook page, with dozens of people weighing in on whether Fahey did the right thing by intervening.

Many thought it’s better to be a good witness and leave the rough stuff to the cops.

“He should have just let him take the tip jar. Less than $20 is not worth risking your life,” Jaime Marie Heath wrote.

Others felt Fahey had to act.

“I couldn’t live with myself if I just stood by and allowed that to happen,” wrote Justin Dufresne.

A similar debate took place at Fahey’s home. One of his four sons asked why he didn’t just let the tip cube go.

Fahey, now a police chaplain who’s working on his master’s degree in theology, advises the public to do just that.

“Let him have it,” he said. “It’s at most five bucks.”

But, he added, “It was instinctive. I don’t like it when people prey on others.”

Fahey, who said he worked as a narcotics, burglary and gang detective during his 30 years on a police force in Los Angeles County, also worried that the suspect was a violent criminal. Many thieves would have stopped at the first sign of resistance and fled, he said, rather than escalate the battle over a few bucks.

Baristas at the Starbucks recognized Fahey as he strolled up just after 8 p.m. for his regular hot chocolate, and water for his two Belgian Malinois dogs, Mali and Nemo.

When the suspect grabbed the tip container from Fahey’s hand, he said, “We were doing a tug of war,” Fahey said. “I told him not to take the money because it belonged to the kids who work there.”

Starbucks employee Justin Pearson, 18, of Costa Mesa said at first, he thought two customers were boxing.

After seeing Fahey get bashed with the sign, the baristas called 911.

A Huntington Beach patrol car zoomed up Brookhurst. Police then took Fahey and some employees up the street one-by-one to identify a man they had in custody.

Officers had caught the suspect as he bicycled up Brookhurst Street about 1 1/2 miles to the north.

Francisco Cardenas, 26, of Santa Ana was booked into the Huntington Beach jail on charges of theft and assault with a deadly weapon.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7734 or jcollins@ocregister.com