He wasn’t going to die face down in an alley, Hennepin County Commissioner Mike Opat told himself, so he reached out and grabbed the barrel of the robber’s sawed-off shotgun.

That’s how he broke free of two men who had beaten him to the ground outside his Robbinsdale home, said Carolyn Marinan, a Hennepin County spokeswoman.

By Wednesday evening Opat was home with his family, reflecting on the brush with violence that didn’t cause any serious injuries, but cost him his Jeep and his wallet.

Robbinsdale police recovered the Jeep but hadn’t arrested anyone as of Wednesday.

“He was probably just at the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Robbinsdale Police Chief Wayne Shellum.

Opat was about to get into his Jeep outside his home in Robbinsdale at about 10 p.m. Tuesday night when he saw the two strangers approaching in the dark, Marinan said Wednesday night.

The commissioner nodded in friendly greeting, then turned to slip his Jeep key into the lock.

Within moments, he had been hit with the butt of a sawed-off shotgun, knocked down, kicked and punched. After he grabbed the gun and managed to break free of his assailants, Opat bolted from the alley, yelling for his neighbors’ help.

The robbers fled with his 1999 Jeep, as well as his wallet, cell phone and Blackberry.

Opat, who couldn’t be reached Wednesday evening, didn’t require medical treatment, but had an assortment of bumps and bruises, including on his forehead.

“He’s handled this pretty darn well,” said Marinan. “Getting out of there alive is a coup.”

Shellum said it’s probably been three years since Robbinsdale had any kind of street crime.

“We don’t have a lot of leads,’’ Shellum said, “but we do have some and we are looking at everything that we can.”

Police asked that anyone with information about the attack call 763-531-1220.

jpowell@startribune.com • 612-673-7750

cblanchard@startribune.com • 612-673-4921