COEUR D'ALENE -- The owner of Sunshine Espresso in Coeur d'Alene fought fire with fire - literally - when she pulled a handgun on a 17-year-old boy who tried to rob her stand Wednesday morning.

Police arrested the teen shortly after the incident, which took place just before 6:30 a.m. in the 1900 block of Government Way.

Sunshine Espresso owner Michelle Cornelsen said the teen walked up to her stand and demanded cash without showing the gun at first

“He didn’t have it at first, he was playing with his pocket, I had a bad feeling though. I had a bad feeling about him,” Cornelsen said.

What the robber didn’t know is that Cornelsen has had her concealed weapons permit for seven years and she had received a new 9mm handgun for Christmas from her husband.

"My husband got me a 9mm for Christmas ... I was pretty excited about that. It made it's debut this morning," she said.

“I’ve never had to use it, thank God, but this morning it came in fairly handy.”

She stalled the teen by talking to him about why he was trying to rob her, to which he replied that he didn’t have any money.

"He was like 'I'm really sorry, gotta make some money' and I said 'I do too, I'm a business owner and I will protect what I have, I don't wanna give you the money. I don't'," she said.

About five minutes into the attempted robbery another customer pulled up to the stand, distracting the would-be robber and giving Cornelsen the opportunity to grab her gun.

"Sure enough a customer pulled up on this side and he laid it down on the counter and covered it up with his hand," she said.

The teen laid his gun down on the counter, just long enough for Michelle to grab her own gun.

"I grabbed mine, put it in his face and said 'Get out, you leave right now' and he said 'OK, OK' and left," Michelle said.

The teen walked away nonchalantly. Meanwhile about two blocks away a Kootenai County deputy in plain clothes was serving civil papers and heard the radio call about the attempted robbery. He tracked down the teen and held him at gunpoint until backup arrived and took him into custody.

KXLY4's McKay Allen contributed to this story.