Taco demanded at knifepoint, police say

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Your breakfast taco or your life.

That's what police said was the message from a homeless man to someone out for a Sunday morning stroll with his dog in the 2900 block of Guadalupe Street.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit handed down Monday, the dog-walker was ambling past a bus stop enjoying his breakfast around 9:50 a.m. when he was approached by a man identified as John Patrick Knisley, 56, of no known address.

The document said Knisley asked the dog-walker for his breakfast taco, and perhaps a few coins from his pocket.

"Buzz off," the dog walker replied, according to the affidavit.

At that point, Knisley produced a silver folding knife with a 3-inch blade and said that if he did not get the taco and some change, he'd cut both the man and his dog.

Fearing that he might suffer "serious bodily injury or death," the man with the dog sought refuge in the nearby Toy Joy store and called police.

The officer said he apprehended Knisley a few blocks away, and that the man identified him as the would-be robber.

Knisley was taken in on a charge of aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon, a first-degree felony. Bail was set at $50,000 with the condition that he come no closer than 200 yards away from the man with the breakfast taco.