Make us your home page  Clerks thought Gulfport robbery was a
joke  ST. PETERSBURG — The convenience store was eerily quiet.
It was only 30 minutes until closing, so Tien Tran suggested to
his boss that they lock up early.  Thanh Hoang agreed. Six
minutes later, three men with bandanas covering their faces
walked in, laughing.  "This is a robbery," they said.  Hoang,
43, was standing by the front door of Joy Food Mart in Gulfport.
He told them to stop joking.  That's when one of the masked men
shot him.  Hoang's three boys — ages 8, 10 and 11 — were behind
the counter with Tran. As their injured father fell, they didn't
speak. They just stood in stunned silence as the robbers turned
their attention to the cash drawer.  As Tran frantically scooped
the money out of the register, all he could think about was
protecting the boys, the ones who referred to him affectionately
as uncle.  Tran handed over all the cash, he said. They shot him
anyway.  The 25-year-old clerk recalled the brazen Dec. 22
robbery from his h